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 | Saint Paul College (MN)* | 11357 | 47035 | 24% |
| 2 | Asnuntuck Community College (CT)* | 6295 | 46374 | 14% |
| 3 | Elite Welding Academy LLC (OH)° | 7684 | 45212 | 17% |
| 4 | Chippewa Valley Technical College (WI)* | 12518 | 44951 | 28% |
| 5 | Hennepin Technical College (MN)* | 20650 | 44805 | 46% |
| 6 | Hawkeye Community College (IA)* | 10791 | 44721 | 24% |
| 7 | Northeast Iowa Community College (IA)* | 6638 | 44545 | 15% |
| 8 | Mesabi Range College (MN)* | 13364 | 44229 | 30% |
| 9 | St. Cloud Technical and Community College (MN)* | 8789 | 44202 | 20% |
| 10 | Dunwoody College of Technology (MN) | 9208 | 44042 | 21% |
| WORST | ||||
| 10 | Northwest Mississippi Community College (MS)* | 4060 | 24762 | 16% |
| 9 | Houston Community College (TX)* | 13438 | 24141 | 56% |
| 8 | Lewis and Clark Community College (IL)* | 4261 | 24110 | 18% |
| 7 | All-State Career School–Pittsburgh (PA)° | 11023 | 23285 | 47% |
| 6 | Compass Career College (LA)° | 7600 | 23176 | 33% |
| 5 | Baton Rouge Community College (LA)* | 10656 | 23048 | 46% |
| 4 | Hinds Community College (MS)* | 6772 | 22606 | 30% |
| 3 | Hohokus School of Trade and Technical Sciences (NJ)° | 6214 | 22401 | 28% |
| 2 | Copiah-Lincoln Community College (MS)* | 3263 | 21982 | 15% |
| 1 | Philadelphia Technician Training (PA) | 8952 | 17378 | 52% |
