Georgia Institute of Cosmetology vs Gwinnett College-Marietta Campus

Metric	Georgia Institute of Cosmetology	Gwinnett College-Marietta Campus
Undergraduate enrollment	200	205
Average net price What students actually pay after aid	$14,397	$33,966
Median debt at graduation	$11,273	$12,498
Graduation rate	54.3%	31.1%
First-year retention	75.0%	62.5%
Median salary (10 yr)	$21,432	$25,373

Metric

Georgia Institute of Cosmetology

Gwinnett College-Marietta Campus

Undergraduate enrollment

200

205

Average net price
What students actually pay after aid

$14,397

$33,966

Median debt at graduation

$11,273

$12,498

Graduation rate

54.3%

31.1%

First-year retention

75.0%

62.5%

Median salary (10 yr)

$21,432

$25,373

What the numbers say

Georgia Institute of Cosmetology costs less after aid — $14,397 a year versus $33,966, a difference of $19,569 annually, or roughly $78,276 across four years.
Gwinnett College-Marietta Campus graduates report higher median earnings — $25,373 against $21,432 ten years after entry.
Georgia Institute of Cosmetology graduates a larger share of its students — 54.3% versus 31.1%.
On pure return — salary divided by net price — Georgia Institute of Cosmetology comes out ahead at 1.5× versus 0.7×.

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 Georgia Institute of Cosmetology and Gwinnett College-Marietta Campus run campus visits. Spending an afternoon on each will tell you things no dataset can.