I am going to walk through that data with you. Not to tell you whether Las Vegas College is “good” or “bad”—no IPEDS file answers that question—but so you can understand what kind of school it is, whom it appears to serve, how much it costs, and what happens to the people who enroll there. With that, you decide what to do with the information. That is your job. Your son’s job is different, and we will carefully distinguish between the two along the way.
What Kind of School It Really Is
Let’s start with the basics: What is Las Vegas College?
It is a private, for-profit, four-year-or-more institution located in Las Vegas, Nevada, in Clark County. It is within the Las Vegas-Henderson-North Las Vegas metropolitan area, although that does not mean the campus is downtown; the census code places it in a suburb, within the urbanized area but outside the principal city. If your son is considering living at home and driving there, I recommend something simple: make that trip yourself on a weekday, at the exact time of his classes. The time shown on the map is almost never the actual time.
But the most revealing thing is not the location. It is what the Carnegie system—the way the United States classifies its colleges and universities according to what they do—says about it: it is a two-year, single-field school focused on the health professions. By size, it appears as a very small two-year school. And in the most recent undergraduate profile, it is described as a place where most students attend full time.
I want to pause here for a second because something does not appear to add up at first: I told you that its federal record identifies it as a four-year-or-more institution, but Carnegie describes it as operating like a two-year school. Both things are true at the same time because they measure different things under different rules. This is not a contradiction; it is the kind of nuance that a data file does not explain by itself. It is up to you to ask directly what credential level is offered by the specific program that interests your son.
And a useful warning: between 2018 and 2021, Carnegie changed this school’s category. If you ever find an old guide that describes it differently from what I am telling you here, do not assume that either source is wrong. Classifications change. What matters is always confirming the most recent date.
As for level of study, the highest level that IPEDS records this institution as reporting that it offers is the bachelor’s degree. But—and this is important—that label describes the institution as a whole; it does not confirm that the specific major that interests your son is offered there or that it leads to that exact degree. Before moving forward with any plan, ask in writing who accredits the school, how much the entire program costs from beginning to end, and what happens to the credits if your son transfers to another institution. With a private, for-profit school, that question is not optional. It is the foundation.
One last piece of its identity: Las Vegas College has none of the three special designations that exist in this system—it is not a historically Black college or university, a tribal college or university, or a land-grant institution. Of the 3,012 colleges and universities in this national directory, 138 do have at least one of the three. The fact that Las Vegas College is not on that list says nothing about which students it serves, how many Latino students are on campus, or how your son will feel there. You learn that by asking directly and speaking with someone who already studies there.
A Small School, and a Community That Is Not White or Young by Default
Here is a fact worth looking at directly: 26 out of every 100 undergraduate students at Las Vegas College were reported as Hispanic or Latino. That is one in four, or more. Compared with 131 private, four-year, open-admission schools that reported the same data, Las Vegas College falls in the top quarter: three out of four similar schools reported an equal or lower share.
Simply put: if your son is Latino, he would not be the exception on this campus.
But I want to be honest with you about what this number does not say, because it is easy to get confused here. A high percentage of Latino students is not the same as support for Latino students. This figure counts how many there are. It does not say whether there is a counselor who speaks Spanish, whether tutoring is available, or whether those students complete their programs. And it is the percentage for the entire school, not for the specific program that interests your son. Counting is not the same as serving. You need to ask about that directly.
There is something else I want you to know before you picture the campus: 72 out of every 100 undergraduate students are between 25 and 64 years old. These are older people, adults who probably already work, some with families of their own. And women are a clear majority: 82 out of every 100 undergraduate students. If your son is coming out of high school at age 18, this is not a campus full of classmates at the same stage of life. It is worth making sure he knows that before deciding, because the social side of college that many teenagers imagine—dorms, parties, the classic “college experience”—is probably not what he will find here.
Where new students came from—which state or which country—is not reported by IPEDS for this school in the most recent cycle. That data simply is not available, and it should not be invented.
As for size, Las Vegas College had 545 students enrolled in the official fall count, within the band of fewer than 1,000. It is one of the smaller schools. Compared with similar schools, its size is in the middle of the pack—neither among the largest nor the smallest in that group. All 545 of those students are undergraduates; there is no graduate enrollment in that count. Being small does not make it better or worse. But if your son enrolls in a place like this, ask something very specific: Are the courses in his program offered every term, or only once a year? The answer determines how long it will actually take him to finish.
How Academics Work
Las Vegas College does not use any of the traditional academic calendars—semesters, quarters, or trimesters. It selected the “other academic calendar” category, which IPEDS reserves for schools that are primarily online or use a one-course-at-a-time format. That does not tell you when each program begins or how long each term lasts. Ask for that in writing before making any timeline plans.
As for credit upon admission, the school did not indicate that it grants credit for life experience or AP exams, and it does not enroll high school students in college-credit courses. This did not measure dual credit or other credit-transfer policies; those also need to be confirmed directly and in writing.
In the most recent year reported, Las Vegas College awarded 2 bachelor’s degrees. Both were in a single academic field: health professions. Nationally, 1,570 institutions award bachelor’s degrees in that same family of programs. Compared with similar schools, Las Vegas College is among those reporting fewer academic fields in their bachelor’s-degree detail.
I want to be careful here because, with numbers this small, it is easy to draw an exaggerated conclusion. The fact that all degrees reported in one year fall within a single field does not prove that this is the school’s only current offering or that changing majors would mean changing institutions. And with only 2 degrees in one year, the count can change considerably from one period to another. Ask for the last three years of data for the exact program that interests your son. Do not treat a single year’s figure as though it were the complete current offering.
The student-to-instructional-staff ratio is 19 to 1: 19 full-time-equivalent students for every full-time-equivalent instructional staff member. Compared with similar schools, it falls near the middle, without reaching the top quarter. It is a middle-range figure, and by itself it decides nothing. It is not the same as the actual size of a classroom—IPEDS does not publish first-year class sizes here, and this ratio cannot be used to calculate them accurately.
One additional fact about scheduling flexibility: the institution reports offering a complete program that can be taken solely during evenings or weekends. If your son works, or if you are also thinking about returning to school, that is a specific question worth asking admissions: Which exact program fits that format?
How Admission Works
I want to simplify something that many websites explain confusingly. Las Vegas College reported an open-admission policy for all or most first-time undergraduate students. That means that, unlike colleges and universities that reject most applicants, its general policy does not screen applicants as aggressively.
But “open admission” is not the same as an “open program.” That classification describes the institution’s general admission policy. It does not guarantee that every applicant will be admitted, it does not guarantee a place in every program, and a specific program—especially in the health professions, where space is often limited by licensing and clinical-placement requirements—may have its own requirements. Confirm the current eligibility conditions and the requirements for the program that interests your son directly.
The published undergraduate application fee is $50.
Because it reports open admission, several questions you would normally see in another college’s profile simply do not apply here: there is no admitted-applicant rate to calculate, no post-admission enrollment rate to report, and no SAT or ACT use policy to record in this component. None of these blanks reflects a lack of transparency by the school; the federal system does not ask for those data when the policy is open admission. Do not mistake them for the school hiding something, and do not automatically assume that those tests or requirements do not exist at all for a specific program. Ask the college directly.
As for transfers, in the most recent fall count, 17 undergraduate students entered Las Vegas College for the first time after previously studying at another institution. Compared with similar schools, that number places it in the bottom half of the group—although remember that this is a count of people, not a proportion, and it depends on the school’s size. How many credits the school accepted from those transfer students is another question, and it should be asked directly of the school.
What It Costs, Without Sugarcoating It
At Las Vegas College, among 42 first-time, full-time students who were seeking a credential, received federal Title IV aid, and whose EFC records showed family income below $30,000, the average net price was $27,843. Among 8 students in the same population with EFC family income from $48,001 to $75,000, it was $31,468; among 3 students with EFC family income above $110,000, it was $33,134. For dependent students, the band combines their parents’ income with their own.
There is a difference of $5,291 between the average for the lowest-income band (42 students) and the average for the highest-income band (3 students). Among first-year students who received any grant or scholarship aid, the average was $28,139.
Among the 118 schools of the same type and control included in this census that reported this figure with the same time coverage, it falls in the most expensive quarter for the lowest-income families. That does not mean you should rule it out. It means you should ask for the financial aid letter before deciding.
An average does not tell you how different the individual cases were within that band; this figure cannot establish that some families were far below or above the published amount. The income bands in this profile describe first-time, full-time, credential-seeking students who received federal Title IV aid; at public institutions, they use the in-state or in-district rate. The overall average with grant or scholarship aid, when shown, describes first-time, full-time, credential-seeking students who received federal, state, local, or institutional grants or scholarships.
How Students Pay in Practice
Half—50 out of every 100 degree- or certificate-seeking students—received some form of grant or scholarship aid that does not have to be repaid. That is more than half, but not everyone. Among those who did receive it, the annual average was $4,593. Compared with similar schools, this share of students receiving grant or scholarship aid falls in the quarter where the aid reaches fewer people.
The Pell Grant—the federal aid specifically for students from low-income families—also reached 50 out of every 100 students. Applying for aid based on family income here is not unusual or limited to a small group: it is half of the student body or more. Do not hesitate to ask which documents they require and when they need them.
And now the part I most want you to look at directly, because it is where this article’s outline places the greatest emphasis: loans.
Out of every 100 undergraduate students at Las Vegas College, 67 received a federal student loan in the most recently reported academic year. That is more than six out of ten. It is the majority, and not by a small margin. Those who borrowed took out an average of $9,220 in loans in a single academic year. If your son borrowed a similar amount each year during the four years of a bachelor’s-degree program, the accumulated total would be around $36,880, without counting the interest that accrues in the meantime.
That number—the $36,880—does not appear in any official report as a guaranteed figure. It is a simple projection that multiplies the typical amount by the typical number of years. But it is exactly the kind of calculation a family needs to make before signing the first document, not afterward. Here, financing with federal debt is common, not the exception.
And there is something else that average does not include: it does not count the Parent PLUS loans that parents often end up signing for, it does not count debt from private banks or credit cards, and it is not the total debt a student has upon graduation—for that, several years would need to be added together, and that specific figure is not in this report.
The fact that borrowing is common at this school does not determine whether your son will need to borrow. That depends on his actual financial aid letter and the difference between the net price and what your family can pay without going into debt. If debt appears in that letter, ask for the estimated monthly payment before accepting anything. The institution also reports offering an installment tuition-payment plan as an option for managing the cost.
Life Outside the Classroom
We need to be clear about what this school does not offer because it completely changes what the college experience looks like.
Las Vegas College does not have its own housing: it offers no dormitories or apartments under its control, either on or off campus. It also does not report meal plans. That does not mean the official financial aid budget ignores those expenses—IPEDS does collect estimates for off-campus housing and food to calculate the total cost of attendance. Ask for the specific budget the financial aid office would use if your son plans to live on his own.
No ROTC opportunities are reported—neither the general category nor any of its three branches. Among the four-year institutions in this guide, 926 out of 1,786 indicated at least one ROTC opportunity; this school was not among them. If your son’s plan depends on an ROTC scholarship, ask admissions directly before ruling out the option—the field shows what was reported, not necessarily everything that exists.
No intercollegiate athletics are reported: there is no membership in any of the recognized national athletic associations (NCAA, NAIA, NJCAA, USCAA, NCCAA) or in another category. If sports matter in your son’s decision, confirm this directly with the school.
Distance education is available at the undergraduate level. In the most recent count, only 1 out of every 100 students took all their classes through distance education; the other 99 took at least one class in person. The school also reported offering at least one complete program that can be finished entirely through distance education, although the report does not confirm that the program is specifically at the undergraduate level—that needs to be confirmed directly.
The library has paid staff, although annual spending remained below $100,000. The collection includes physical materials, not only digital ones, but the institution reported that it does not offer interlibrary loan service. If your son’s program involves research—assignments requiring books or articles that the local library does not have—ask how students obtain those materials without that service.
As for general support, the institution reports a combined academic and career-counseling service, placement services for those who complete their programs, and a published web address for services for people with disabilities. The fact that these services are reported confirms that they exist on paper. It does not confirm their quality or how accessible they are in practice—you learn that by speaking with the school and, if possible, with current students.
What Happens to the Students Who Enroll There
We have reached the question that probably matters most to you: If my son enrolls, how likely is he to finish?
Here the file has an unusual gap worth explaining carefully because, at first glance, it looks like an error. The first-year retention rate—how many full-time entrants remain enrolled one year later—is blank in the most recent report. But this is not missing data: the school reported that this specific cohort of first-time, full-time, bachelor’s-degree-seeking students contained zero people that year. With no group, there is no percentage to calculate. That does not say whether the school is good or bad; it simply means that this particular cohort was empty during that cycle. If your son would enroll full time, ask admissions for data from other years and ask what first-year support is available.
The graduation rate does have a figure, and I want you to pause here: of the cohort that entered in 2017—first-time, full-time students seeking any degree or certificate—58 out of every 100 completed a program at this institution within 150% of the normally expected time. That is more than half.
But that figure is historical, from a specific group that entered several years ago. It is not a prediction about your son. And it follows only those who entered for the first time and full time—it does not represent students who transferred in or those who started part time.
Now for the most consequential figure of all, the one that best summarizes the full path: the eight-year measurement, which gives students much more time than usual to finish.
This count begins with a cohort of 208 students who entered Las Vegas College between July 2015 and June 2016—combining those who entered college for the first time with those who already had prior college experience, both full-time and part-time students. As of August 2023, eight years later, 61 out of every 100 had earned a degree or certificate from this school. More than half. And among the students in that same cohort who received a Pell Grant, the figure was exactly the same: 61 out of every 100. The fact that the two figures match does not mean the path was the same for everyone.
Compared with similar schools, this eight-year outcome places Las Vegas College in the top quarter: three out of four similar schools reported an equal or lower share of students earning credentials within that period.
Simply put: within that cohort, between 4 and 7 out of every 10 students earned a credential from this school within eight years. The report does not explain why the others do not appear as having earned one—they may have transferred to another institution and earned a credential there, they may have continued studying, or they may have left school entirely. There is an accounting detail here that I want you to see because it is honest and somewhat uncomfortable: as of the same cutoff, 38% of that cohort—80 of its 208 members—had an “unknown” enrollment status. Unknown means that the system could not determine whether they remained enrolled anywhere. It does not mean they dropped out, and it does not provide the reason. For this reason, the figures do not add up perfectly to 100, and that is part of how the national tracking system works, not an error specific to this school.
Before deciding, ask directly about the specific support available to help students finish, and request the most recent outcomes the school has available, not only these figures that arrive years late because of how federal reporting works.
What This Article Cannot Tell You
I do not have any certified data about what happens to Las Vegas College students after graduation: I do not know how much they earn, whether they find work in their field, or how much debt they carry when they leave. That information is not part of what the federal government reports in this dataset, and I will not invent or estimate it. If that question matters to you—and it probably should, given that this school focuses on the health professions—ask the institution directly and look for external sources that do cover that ground.
Putting the Pieces Together
You now understand one piece of the puzzle in considerable depth: what Las Vegas College is according to its own official reports. It is a small, for-profit school focused almost entirely on the health professions, with open admission but no guarantee of admission to a program, and with a student community where being Latino is not the exception and where most students are adults rather than teenagers just out of high school. It costs more than many comparable schools even after financial aid, finances most of its students through loans, and produces graduation outcomes that, in comparison with similar schools, are among the best in its group at eight years.
None of these facts, by itself, decides anything for you. That is your part: combine what you have just read with what your son actually wants to study, what he has already built so far, and what your family can afford without compromising its stability. Your son is responsible for his effort, his curiosity, and the direction of his life. You are responsible for the money, the documents, the dates, and supporting him as he decides. The school is responsible for admitting students, offering support, and, if your son enrolls, educating him.
If you are just beginning to consider this option, call admissions directly and ask, in writing, for the accreditation of the exact program, the total cost of the entire program, and the credit-transfer policies. If you are further along in the decision, ask for the actual financial aid letter before committing to anything, and compare the net price—not the sticker price—with what your family can sustain without excessive debt. If you feel that you are starting late, document what you already know and use this list of questions to fill in what is missing.
You have not finished researching everything there is to know about this college. You have finished understanding one real, verifiable piece of it. That is already more than most families have when they sit down to decide.
Note on sources: The information in this article comes from data reported by Las Vegas College to the United States Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), corresponding primarily to the years 2022-23 and 2023-24, as indicated in each section. Best College Aid does not represent Las Vegas College or any government agency; this article organizes and explains public data to help families understand it.