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 | Wichita State University–Campus of Applied Sciences and Technology (KS)* | 12763 | 55711 | 23% |
| 2 | Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics (PA) | 14511 | 51522 | 28% |
| 3 | Aviation Institute of Maintenance–Fremont (CA)° | 20974 | 50396 | 42% |
| 4 | Fox Valley Technical College (WI)* | 8365 | 49801 | 17% |
| 5 | Greenville Technical College (SC)* | 11327 | 46323 | 24% |
| 6 | Mohawk Valley Community College (NY)* | 7534 | 46160 | 16% |
| 7 | National Aviation Academy of New England (MA)° | 17969 | 44824 | 40% |
| 8 | Metro Technology Centers (OK)* | 13443 | 44531 | 30% |
| 9 | National Aviation Academy of Tampa Bay (FL)° | 20052 | 44132 | 45% |
| 10 | Chandler-Gilbert Community College (AZ)* | 10488 | 43762 | 24% |
| WORST | ||||
| 10 | Arkansas State University–Beebe (AR)* | 6069 | 25343 | 24% |
| 9 | National Park College (AR)* | 11476 | 24236 | 47% |
| 8 | Apex Technical School (NY)° | 8073 | 24052 | 34% |
| 7 | Grand Rapids Community College (MI)* | 5872 | 23727 | 25% |
| 6 | Philadelphia Technician Training Institute (PA) | 9237 | 22833 | 40% |
| 5 | Daytona State College (FL)* | 7085 | 21472 | 33% |
| 4 | Albany Technical College (GA)* | 15120 | 20860 | 72% |
| 3 | GateWay Community College (AZ)* | 3924 | 20689 | 19% |
| 2 | Lorain County Joint Vocational School District (OH)* | 3026 | 20558 | 15% |
| 1 | Mobile Technical Training (NJ)° | 3066 | 19469 | 16% |