
Hollywood, FLprivate forprofitwww.hi.edu/
Acceptance & SAT from Common Data Set / IPEDS; net price, earnings & graduation from the U.S. Dept. of Education College Scorecard. Figures lag ~1–2 years — verify with the school.
Hollywood Institute of Beauty Careers is not a traditional university but a focused trade school with a singular mission: to license professionals for the beauty and wellness industry. Operating since 1974 across four Florida campuses, it offers an open-admissions, high-touch, and intensely practical education where students spend their days in salon clinics, not lecture halls. The vibe is overwhelmingly female, career-oriented, and designed for swift entry into the workforce, with graduation rates and post-graduation earnings that reflect its vocational focus.
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Outcomes & value
Earnings = median of students working ~10 years after entry; debt = median of graduates. Value divides 10-yr earnings by one year’s net price — read it as earnings per dollar of annual cost, not a full lifetime ROI; it favors lower-cost schools. Source: U.S. Dept. of Education College Scorecard. Figures lag ~2 years and reflect all students, not your intended major.
U.S. Dept. of Education Financial Responsibility Composite Score (FY2022-23). Scale −1.0 to 3.0; ≥1.5 meets the standard. Reported for private nonprofit & for-profit institutions only — public universities are state-backed and not scored, so this is a stability signal, not a ranking.
Campus & location
On-campus criminal offenses classed as violent (murder/non-negligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, aggravated assault) for the most recent reported year. Source: U.S. Dept. of Education Campus Safety and Security (Clery Act). Counts reflect what’s reported to the school, and urban campuses often report more partly due to non-student incidents nearby — read alongside campus size and setting, not as a standalone safety verdict.
Pleasant days counts days per year with a mean temperature of 55–75°F, a high at or below 90°F, a low at or above 45°F, and little precipitation — a transparent comfort measure, not a weighting we invented. Computed from Open-Meteo ERA5 daily history (2019–2023). Natural-hazard risk is the county’s composite rating from the FEMA National Risk Index.
The Hollywood Institute operates on an open-admissions model, with multiple sources reporting a 100% Acceptance rateThe share of applicants a college admits in a given year. A 10% acceptance rate means it admits about 1 in 10 applicants.. This reflects its mission as a career-focused trade school rather than a selective academic institution. The process is designed for accessibility, with no application fee reported. The institute's total enrollment across its campuses is 286 students, with a pronounced gender skew: 87% of students are female and 13% are male. The student body is diverse, with data from the West Palm Beach campus indicating an enrolled population that is 47.7% Hispanic or Latino, 26.8% Black or African American, 11.7% White, and 8.9% identifying as two or more races. The institute has been training students for careers in beauty, health, and wellness since 1974.
The academic offering is tightly focused on a narrow set of vocational programs leading to professional licensure. Only three major program areas are offered: General Cosmetology, Barbering, and Massage Therapy. The most common concentration is General Cosmetology, which accounted for 38 degrees awarded in the most recent data. The curriculum is explicitly "career-oriented education combined with practical experience," with a heavy emphasis on hands-on training. A key selling point promoted by the institute is that graduates leave with a professional license in hand. The student-to-faculty ratio is reported as 16 to 1, suggesting a more personalized, workshop-style environment than a large lecture hall. There are no bachelor's degree programs; the institution awards certificates.
Student life revolves entirely around the clinic-salon environment and professional skill-building. Campuses are designed as functional training facilities, each containing a reception area, classrooms, a dispensary, a break area, a salon clinic, and facial rooms. The institute's social media presence frames the experience not as "just a beauty school" but as building careers and creating future barbers, cosmetologists, estheticians, and nail technicians. The culture is described as turning "passion into a beautiful career" and preparing students for success in the beauty and wellness industry. There is no mention of traditional collegiate amenities like dorms, sports teams, or Greek life; the focus is on practicing skills in a simulated professional setting.
Outcomes are measured by licensure, graduation, and early-career earnings. The institute's overall graduation rate is reported as 71.6%. Data for the Casselberry campus shows a 150% time completion rate of 73.08% and a first-year retention rate of 60.5%. For graduates, the median earnings one year after graduation are reported as $36,427. These metrics underscore the institute's purpose: to efficiently train and place students into the workforce. The value proposition is centered on obtaining a license and beginning work quickly, rather than long-term academic advancement.
The average annual Cost of attendanceThe full estimated yearly cost of a college: tuition, fees, housing, food, books, and other expenses, before any financial aid. is reported as $18,597. Financial aid is widely available, though reported figures vary by source. One source states that 99% of undergraduate students receive an average of $3,107 in grants and scholarships. Another reports that 68% of students receive an average federal grant of $4,210. Data from the West Palm Beach campus indicates about 45% of first-time students receive grant or scholarship aid, with an average award of $4,650. The institute participates in federal loan programs, offering both need-based (subsidized) and non-need-based (unsubsidized) Direct Loans to qualified students. The Net priceWhat a family actually pays after grants and scholarships are subtracted from the sticker price — usually far less than the published cost. calculator on the institute's website allows prospective students to estimate their final costs. The average debt for students is $6,199.
Hollywood Institute of Beauty Careers stands out for its unwavering, no-frills focus on vocational licensure. It makes no pretensions to being a liberal arts college; it is a trade school with a clear, fifty-year-old mission. The 100% Acceptance rateThe share of applicants a college admits in a given year. A 10% acceptance rate means it admits about 1 in 10 applicants. and clinic-based campuses signal an open door for motivated students seeking a direct, hands-on career path. Its distinctiveness lies in its efficiency and specificity: students come for one of three licensed trades, train in professional-grade salon environments, and leave with the credential needed to work. The demographic profile—overwhelmingly female, ethnically diverse—and the solid graduation and earnings outcomes reflect its success in serving a specific niche in the career-education landscape. It is for the student who knows exactly what professional field they want to enter and wants to start yesterday.