+113%
Median federal debt at exit
Median federal debt at exit at Southern College of Optometry rose 112% between 2008 and 2009 ($1.8k → $3.7k).
Tennessee · Private nonprofit · Predominantly graduate
Southern College of Optometry
Memphis, Tennessee. 3 programs in the federal Field-of-Study dataset.
ANOMALY ENGINE · NOTABLE SIGNALS
What the data flags at Southern College of Optometry
Short-arc shifts (recent 3-year window), peer outliers, earnings trend breaks, completion drops, enrollment cliffs, and debt-to-earnings warnings — surfaced deterministically from the federal record. Multi-decade shifts are reported separately in the Long Arc section, since 25-year tuition drift isn't really an anomaly.
SECTION 01 · OUTCOMES SNAPSHOT
The numbers, vs. Tennessee
Each tile compares this institution to the Tennessee median for the same metric. Sub-line shows the comparison value, not an interpretation. Sparklines trace the federally available history.
—
Tennessee median $38,880—
Treasury earnings · 6y post-entry—
Tennessee median 57.6%—+113% · '08→'09
At program completion—
latest IPEDS—
first-time, full-time—
latest cohort—
annualSECTION 04 · LONG ARC
Ten-plus year arc
Federally available history. Coverage varies by metric — IPEDS publishes some series only after 2009 and others only before.
Median federal student debt at exit.
+113%
Southern College of Optometry · median debt rose
$1,752 → $3,723
SECTION 05 · PROGRAMS
Ranked by 5-year earnings
Each row is one (CIP × credential) program reported by the institution in College Scorecard's Field-of-Study data. Cohort floor is 30 students; below this, federal data is suppressed.
SECTION 06 · BY CIP FAMILY
1 programs with earnings, grouped
Programs are grouped by 2-digit CIP family. Programs without reported earnings are hidden to keep the list focused.
HEALTH PROFESSIONS · CIP 51
FINANCIAL OUTCOME · ILLUSTRATION
Estimate the financial outcome at Southern College of Optometry
Pick a program. Cost from Scorecard net price by family income; earnings from Treasury 5-year-post-completion median, projected forward with a Mincer age-earnings curve. The selection-bias toggle applies the Dale-Krueger shrinkage. Outcomes illustration, not a forecast — see methodology.
Shrinks the earnings premium toward the matched-applicant mean. STEM <15%, business ~40%, arts & education ~60%.
EARNINGS SUPPRESSED
Federal privacy rules suppressed earnings for Optometry · First Professional Degree at Southern College of Optometry(cohort below 30 students). The calculator can’t produce a number we’d stand behind, so we don’t.
Outcomes illustration · not a forecast. Projects observed Scorecard earnings forward with a Mincer age-earnings curve under your assumptions. See methodology for the math.
SECTION 07 · SIMILAR INSTITUTIONS
Same sector and degree mix in Tennessee
Picked by Carnegie sector × predominant credential level. These are not rankings — just nearest-neighbour surfaces for comparison.
CAUSAL DISCIPLINE
“Southern College of Optometry graduates earn $X” — not “Southern College of Optometry makes you earn $X”
Median earnings describe what cohorts earned. They do not describe what attending Southern College of Optometry caused. Selection effects (who admits, who enrolls, who completes) are real. We publish federal data with strict descriptive phrasing — and link the methodology where you can read about the limitations directly.