We’re here to help you find schools that offer results
It’s a great choice to use education to get ahead. As we detail in our story A little training can lead to a job with great pay!, there are some career training programs that offer phenomenal results.
But what about those of us who need to study near home? Here are some stats:
- Half of certificate and associate’s schools cost more than $12,000 a year after all grants have been applied.
- More than half of the schools see over 13% of their past students defaulting on their federal student loans with three years, and rewer than half of the students who attend are able to reduce their federal loan debt by even $1 seven years after attending.
- Half of these schools award degrees to at most about a fourth of all of those who enroll.
Our goal is to help you find schools have better outcomes for their students, and that charge a price you can afford. We’re going to help you find the best local school to help you get ahead.
You can find good quality for low costs
We rated each certificate or associate’s-granting school based on how their past students fared relative to all schools in this group. In the graphic below, we show the average annual costs, including living expenses, for all students for each of the alumni outcomes ratings categories. (Public colleges costs reflect in-state attendees only.) At most levels of alumni outcomes, there are low-cost options and high-cost options, which gives us hope that you can find an affordable school that offers good quality. There is one exception: the best alumni outcomes were at schools requiring a greater up-front investment.
In the following graphic, each school is a represented with a dot, and sized by the number of undergraduates attending with color representing institutional control:
- Public control: these colleges offer bargains within their own state, as shown by their placement on the left-hand side of the graphic, but the out-of-state cost is likely to be significantly higher.
- Private not-for-profit control: these institutions are funded primarily by endowment donations and growth, as well as by tuition. It may surprise you to see that a private college or university can be as affordable as your public options.
- Private for-profit control: these institutions operate with profit as their goal and are funded almost entirely by tuition revenue. For bachelor’s-seeking students the for-profit schools often offer poor outcomes, but for career-focused degrees we often see good student results offered by for-profit institutions.
SOURCES:Use the filters and table below to discover the colleges and universities that balance student costs with the best alumni outcomes for certificate and associate’s-offering schools. As you consider the results in this table, pay special attention to the accreditation status. If you are hoping to eventually transfer to a 4-year program, it is in your best interest to stick to the blue seal corresponding to institutions who are in good standing with regional accreditors. Credits earned at other institutions may be more difficult to transfer.
SOURCES:
In addition to this summary table, Ididio’s school explorer provides you with many ways to discover potential colleges and career schools. While each school’s costs and alumni successes are really important, to find your best fit you need data about the programs offered, classroom environment, and student body composition. We hope you will use all of our information to find the best home for your future success.
