Miller-Motte College-Augusta vs Paul Mitchell the School-Esani

Metric	Miller-Motte College-Augusta	Paul Mitchell the School-Esani
Undergraduate enrollment	506	359
Average net price What students actually pay after aid	$22,223	$18,522
Median debt at graduation	$15,917	$9,833
Graduation rate	59.0%	76.5%
First-year retention	74.6%	71.4%
Median salary (10 yr)	$31,102	$26,287

Metric

Miller-Motte College-Augusta

Paul Mitchell the School-Esani

Undergraduate enrollment

506

359

Average net price
What students actually pay after aid

$22,223

$18,522

Median debt at graduation

$15,917

$9,833

Graduation rate

59.0%

76.5%

First-year retention

74.6%

71.4%

Median salary (10 yr)

$31,102

$26,287

What the numbers say

Paul Mitchell the School-Esani costs less after aid — $18,522 a year versus $22,223, a difference of $3,701 annually, or roughly $14,804 across four years.
Miller-Motte College-Augusta graduates report higher median earnings — $31,102 against $26,287 ten years after entry.
Paul Mitchell the School-Esani graduates a larger share of its students — 76.5% versus 59.0%.
On pure return — salary divided by net price — Paul Mitchell the School-Esani comes out ahead at 1.4× versus 1.4×.

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 Miller-Motte College-Augusta and Paul Mitchell the School-Esani run campus visits. Spending an afternoon on each will tell you things no dataset can.