Arkansas Trade Schools: Cost, Completion & Earnings (2026 stats)

Analysis & insights

EDsmart Data aggregates institution-level College Scorecard data for this profile. Highlights below compare local medians to U.S. and regional benchmarks.

Costs & borrowing

Median graduate debt is $9,833 (+0.4% above the U.S. median of $9,792, and +1.4% vs the Southeast regional median of $9,696). Low sticker prices do not always mean low borrowing—living costs, time-to-degree, and aid mix matter.

Student debt rank: #28 nationally of 58 (lower debt = better rank); #8 in Southeast of 12 (1 = lowest median debt).

Earnings, employment & retention

Among bachelor's-predominant campuses with ≥200 students, median 10-year earnings in Arkansas are $33,654, about -4.1% vs the U.S. campus median ($35,086).

The median campus reports 81.7% of its 8-year cohort as working and not enrolled—our closest federal proxy to a placement rate. The U.S. campus median is 81.0% (+0.7 pp). Formal job-placement statistics are not published in Scorecard; treat this as a comparative outcome indicator, not a hire guarantee.

First-year, full-time retention at the median campus is 72.2% vs a U.S. median of 65.2%—a leading indicator for completion and time-to-degree.

Loan repayment indicators at the median campus: 2-yr default 14.6% (U.S. 11.1%); 3-yr repayment progress 57.1% (U.S. 50.5%). 3-yr default is omitted when most campuses report suppressed zeros.

Nationally, Arkansas ranks earnings #32 and employment proxy #22 on these outcome medians (1 = best).

Top employment-outcome campuses in this extract include Designer Barber & Stylist School (100.0%), Baptist Health College Little Rock (93.3%), Arkansas State University-Newport (91.0%), Arkansas Tech University (87.9%), Southern Arkansas University Tech (87.0%), University of Arkansas-Fort Smith (86.7%), South Arkansas College (86.3%), University of Arkansas Community College-Morrilton (85.5%), Arkansas State University Mid-South (84.9%), University of Arkansas at Monticello (84.9%)—useful anchors for local reporting on where graduates are most often working rather than still enrolled.

Completion & workforce context

Within Arkansas, sector medians diverge: Private for-profit median 10-yr earnings $20,077 (15 campuses); Public median 10-yr earnings $34,587 (26 campuses). Public campuses often dominate enrollment while private nonprofits can show higher earnings medians at selective institutions.

Average institution-level completion rate across all sectors in Arkansas is 54.6% (national institution average about 61.5%).