The Washington Monthly is the first and only publication to rank America’s best colleges for vocational certificates. To build the rankings, we pulled numbers for the ten most common undergraduate certificate programs from the U.S. Department of Education’s College Scorecard dataset. For each program, we rank colleges according to the median earnings of their students one year after graduation. For informational purposes, we also show the median federal student loan debt and a debt-to-earnings ratio.
Click here for a more detailed explanation, here for all of our other rankings, and here to download the full vocational certificate data set.
| Rank | Name | Median debt of graduates | Median annual earnings | Total debt as a % of annual earnings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BEST | ||||
| 1 | Lia Schorr Institute of Cosmetic Skin Care Training (NY)° | 5950 | 36823 | 16% |
| 2 | University of Aesthetics & Cosmetology (IL)° | 7216 | 31962 | 23% |
| 3 | Aveda Arts & Sciences Institute Seattle (WA)° | 10348 | 30633 | 34% |
| 4 | San Francisco Institute of Esthetics & Cosmetology (CA)° | 10388 | 27448 | 38% |
| 5 | Saint Paul College (MN)* | 9289 | 27193 | 34% |
| 6 | La James International College–Iowa City (IA)° | 12903 | 27111 | 48% |
| 7 | O'Briens Aveda Institute (VT)° | 9511 | 27051 | 35% |
| 8 | Atelier Esthetique Institute of Esthetics (NY)° | 5147 | 26532 | 19% |
| 9 | Chippewa Valley Technical College (WI)* | 8629 | 25996 | 33% |
| 10 | Aveda Arts and Sciences Institute Minneapolis (MN)° | 8287 | 25857 | 32% |
| WORST | ||||
| 10 | New Tyler Barber College (AR)° | 9242 | 11179 | 83% |
| 9 | California Beauty College (CA)° | 7397 | 11154 | 66% |
| 8 | Professional Cosmetology Education Center (AR)° | 11565 | 11093 | 104% |
| 7 | Sharps Academy of Hair Styling (MI)° | 6411 | 10940 | 59% |
| 6 | Pearl River Community College (MS)* | 5398 | 10888 | 50% |
| 5 | Washington Barber College Inc (AR)° | 15173 | 10805 | 140% |
| 4 | Southeast Texas Career Institute (TX)° | 8012 | 10799 | 74% |
| 3 | Trend Barber College (TX)° | 11369 | 10529 | 108% |
| 2 | Career Beauty College (TN)° | 10341 | 9868 | 105% |
| 1 | Associated Barber College of San Diego (CA)° | 12672 | 9036 | 140% |