Empire Beauty School-Augusta vs Institute of Medical Ultrasound

Metric	Empire Beauty School-Augusta	Institute of Medical Ultrasound
Undergraduate enrollment	73	50
In-state tuition	—	$31,052
Out-of-state tuition	—	$31,052
Average net price What students actually pay after aid	$16,955	$51,036
Median debt at graduation	$10,667	$20,000
Graduation rate	30.0%	25.8%
First-year retention	50.0%	50.0%
Median salary (10 yr)	$23,921	—

Metric

Empire Beauty School-Augusta

Institute of Medical Ultrasound

Undergraduate enrollment

In-state tuition

—

$31,052

Out-of-state tuition

—

$31,052

Average net price
What students actually pay after aid

$16,955

$51,036

Median debt at graduation

$10,667

$20,000

Graduation rate

30.0%

25.8%

First-year retention

50.0%

Median salary (10 yr)

$23,921

—

What the numbers say

Empire Beauty School-Augusta costs less after aid — $16,955 a year versus $51,036, a difference of $34,081 annually, or roughly $136,324 across four years.
Empire Beauty School-Augusta graduates a larger share of its students — 30.0% versus 25.8%.

How to actually choose

Comparison tables are a starting point, not a decision. Three things matter more than anything in the table above:

Your real aid offer. Net price is an average across all income levels. Two students at the same school can pay amounts that differ by tens of thousands. Wait for actual award letters before ruling anything out on cost.
Your intended major. Earnings vary more between majors at one school than between schools for one major. A computer science graduate from the "lower earning" school here will likely out-earn a general studies graduate from the other.
Whether you will finish. Graduation rate is the metric most predictive of whether the money spent turns into a credential. Campus fit, support services, and commute all feed into it more than prestige does.

Visit before you commit

Both Empire Beauty School-Augusta and Institute of Medical Ultrasound run campus visits. Spending an afternoon on each will tell you things no dataset can.