College Viability Inspection Report

Salish Kootenai College

Montana · Public

Salish Kootenai College is a public institution in Montana, enrolling 522 students as of 2024. It graduates 23% of students in four years, returns 82% of freshmen for a second year, and costs an average of $6,771 a year after grants and scholarships. Of the 7 inspection checks that could be evaluated, 5 are flagged: Retention, Graduation, Enrollment, Tuition Allocation, and Price vs. Outcomes. This report benchmarks Salish Kootenai College's most recent reported year (2024) against 2,000+ U.S. colleges across three dimensions: student outcomes, financial health, and value for money. All figures are drawn from federal IPEDS filings and are reported without editorial judgment.

Data note: The U.S. Department of Education's IPEDS database did not include every reported figure for Salish Kootenai College between 2020 and 2024. 4 indicators have IPEDS data missing for one or more years 2020–2024 and 2 inspection flags could not be evaluated for lack of data — affected indicators are tagged below; missing years are shown as gaps in trend charts rather than estimated.

Salish Kootenai College Inspection Flags

Student Outcomes
Financial Health
Value for Your Money

Inspection flags are nine independent checks across student outcomes, financial health, and cost-to-value that surface areas of a college's reported numbers worth a closer look. A triggered flag means the college's data met a specific threshold that students and families may want to ask about — for example, graduation rates slipping below a level, or tuition rising while outcomes decline. A clear flag means the threshold was not met. Flags are signals for further conversation, not verdicts.

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College Viability
Data Summary

Salish Kootenai College — All Reported Indicators

Plain-text reference table of every metric and inspection flag for Salish Kootenai College. Values reflect IPEDS-reported figures; percent changes reflect endpoint-to-endpoint 2020 → 2024 comparison; percentiles reflect 2024 national rank against four-year public and private nonprofit institutions. Cells marked "not reported" indicate the indicator was not present in IPEDS for this institution.

Student Outcomes

Metric2024 Value5-Yr % ChangeNational Percentile
Four-Year Graduation Rate23.0%-46.5%22nd
Six-Year Graduation Rate33.0%-36.5%16th
Full-Time Retention Rate82.0%+22.4%66th
Pell Grant Six-Year Graduation Rate11.1%-82.2%6th
Pell-to-Non-Pell Graduation Gap-8.5pp+83.8%8th
Pell Share of Cohort32.1%-47.8%37th

Financial Health

Metric2024 Value5-Yr % ChangeNational Percentile
Revenue-to-Expense Rationot reportednot reportednot reported
Total FTE Enrollment522-10.2%22nd
Endowment Valuenot reportednot reportednot reported
Net Assets (End of Year)not reportednot reportednot reported

Value for Money

Metric2024 Value5-Yr % ChangeNational Percentile
Instructional Spending %not reportednot reportednot reported
Student Support Spending %not reportednot reportednot reported
Administrative Spending %not reportednot reportednot reported
Instruction+Support to Admin Rationot reportednot reportednot reported
Average Net Price$6,771+14.9%5th
Net Price: $0-30K Income$6,999+39.6%14th
Net Price: $30K-48K Income$9,221+18.3%22nd
Net Price: $48-75K Income$8,502+51.3%11th
Net Price: $75K-110K Income$11,883+86.0%11th
Net Price: $110K+ Incomenot reportednot reportednot reported

Inspection Flags

FlagSectionStatus
Retention Below 80%
Salish Kootenai College's retention rate fell below 80% in 3 of 5 reported years — triggering the 3-of-5 threshold.
Student OutcomesTriggered
Four-Year Graduation Rate Below 50%
Salish Kootenai College's 4-year graduation rate fell below 50% in 5 of 5 reported years — triggering the 3-of-5 threshold.
Student OutcomesTriggered
Pell Gap Exceeds 10 Points
Not enough reported data for this flag — only 0 of 5 years had a Pell cohort of 50+ students.
Student OutcomesNot Evaluated
Revenue-to-Expense Below 1.0
Salish Kootenai College's ratio fell below 1.0 in 1 of 4 reported years — below the 3-of-5 trigger threshold.
Financial HealthCleared
Enrollment Declined 5% or More
Salish Kootenai College's total enrollment fell from 581 to 522 students between 2020 and 2024 (-10.2%) — a decline of 5% or more.
Financial HealthTriggered
Endowment Under $50M or Growth Under 15%
Endowment was not reported for 2020 or 2024, so this flag could not be evaluated.
Financial HealthNot Evaluated
High Cost, Low Completion
Salish Kootenai College costs less than the national median AND graduates students at below-median rates — only one of two conditions is met.
Value for MoneyCleared
Spending on Students Below the National Median
Salish Kootenai College spends $— on instruction and student support per $1 of admin (2024) — below the national median of $2.75 in 3 of 4 reported years.
Value for MoneyTriggered
Rising Price, Falling Outcomes
Both conditions were met: Salish Kootenai College's net price rose while the 6-year graduation rate declined between 2020 and 2024 — a prompt to ask whether tuition increases are translating into stronger student outcomes.
Value for MoneyTriggered