College Scorecard · cost, debt & earnings
J. F. Drake State Community and Technical College
Huntsville, AL · Public · Certificate-granting · 755 undergrads
Most students who start here do not finish — and the debt is owed whether or not you graduate.
For 2-year colleges this undercounts students who transfer to a 4-year school before finishing here.
Average annual price after grants & scholarships.
What former students go on to earn
The middle 50% of students who received federal aid, measured 10 years after they entered (an earlier entering class — not a guarantee, and not limited to those who graduated). Earnings vary enormously by field of study.
42% earn more than a typical high-school graduate (the dashed line above, $28,000 — a fixed, somewhat dated federal benchmark) ten years on.
What these numbers are — and are not
Every figure here is an institution-wide median from the U.S. Dept. of Education College Scorecard. It is not a prediction of what you would earn or owe — a computer-science and a fine-arts graduate of the same school can earn wildly different amounts, and your field of study matters more than your school. It is not a figure for any one program, not proof the school caused the outcome (selective schools admit students who would earn more anyway), and not a "best college" ranking. Earnings and debt cover federally-aided students.
→ The number that actually answers "worth it" is earnings by major . See J. F. Drake State Community and Technical College by field of study on the official Scorecard (this school's programs are below the Dept. of Education's reporting threshold here).
Also available: structured data (JSON-LD) · plain text · JSON. Source: U.S. Dept. of Education College Scorecard (2026-06-10 release). · school website