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 | Sage School of Massage & Esthetics (OR)° | 5779 | 24750 | 23% |
| 2 | Salon Professional Academy–Fargo (ND)° | 8630 | 24669 | 35% |
| 3 | Metro Beauty Academy (PA)° | 7456 | 24378 | 31% |
| 4 | Cortiva Institute–Cromwell (CT)° | 7017 | 23835 | 29% |
| 5 | Pinnacle Career Institute–South Kansas City (MO)° | 7595 | 23711 | 32% |
| 6 | Center for the Healing Arts (NJ)° | 5564 | 23679 | 23% |
| 7 | University of Western States (OR) | 11860 | 23659 | 50% |
| 8 | Lincoln Technical Institute (NJ)° | 7205 | 23611 | 31% |
| 9 | Mind Body Institute (TN)° | 6415 | 23469 | 27% |
| 10 | Carrington College–Spokane (WA)° | 7905 | 23422 | 34% |
| WORST | ||||
| 10 | Sarasota School of Massage Therapy (FL)° | 7876 | 15622 | 50% |
| 9 | Harris School of Business–Wilmington (DE)° | 6635 | 15230 | 44% |
| 8 | Great Lakes Institute of Technology (PA)° | 8916 | 15125 | 59% |
| 7 | Cayce/Reilly School of Massage (VA) | 6443 | 15053 | 43% |
| 6 | Dr. Ida Rolf Institute (CO) | 6610 | 14860 | 44% |
| 5 | Headlines Academy Inc (SD)° | 7007 | 14756 | 47% |
| 4 | College of Massage Therapy (ID)° | 6109 | 14564 | 42% |
| 3 | Hollywood Institute of Beauty Careers (FL)° | 7014 | 14277 | 49% |
| 2 | Chattanooga State Community College (TN)* | 11038 | 13586 | 81% |
| 1 | South Texas Vocational Technical Institute (TX)° | 5998 | 9735 | 62% |