Gwinnett College-Marietta Campus vs Miller-Motte College-Columbus

Metric	Gwinnett College-Marietta Campus	Miller-Motte College-Columbus
Undergraduate enrollment	205	190
Average net price What students actually pay after aid	$33,966	$21,179
Median debt at graduation	$12,498	$15,917
Graduation rate	31.1%	12.8%
First-year retention	62.5%	45.2%
Median salary (10 yr)	$25,373	$31,102

Metric

Gwinnett College-Marietta Campus

Miller-Motte College-Columbus

Undergraduate enrollment

205

190

Average net price
What students actually pay after aid

$33,966

$21,179

Median debt at graduation

$12,498

$15,917

Graduation rate

31.1%

12.8%

First-year retention

62.5%

45.2%

Median salary (10 yr)

$25,373

$31,102

What the numbers say

Miller-Motte College-Columbus costs less after aid — $21,179 a year versus $33,966, a difference of $12,787 annually, or roughly $51,148 across four years.
Miller-Motte College-Columbus graduates report higher median earnings — $31,102 against $25,373 ten years after entry.
Gwinnett College-Marietta Campus graduates a larger share of its students — 31.1% versus 12.8%.
On pure return — salary divided by net price — Miller-Motte College-Columbus 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 Gwinnett College-Marietta Campus and Miller-Motte College-Columbus run campus visits. Spending an afternoon on each will tell you things no dataset can.