Georgia 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 $10,361 (+9.1% above the U.S. median of $9,500, and +7.8% vs the Southeast regional median of $9,612). Low sticker prices do not always mean low borrowing—living costs, time-to-degree, and aid mix matter.

Student debt rank: #42 nationally of 58 (lower debt = better rank); #11 in Southeast of 12 (1 = lowest median debt).

Earnings, employment & retention

Among bachelor's-predominant campuses with ≥200 students, median 10-year earnings in Georgia are $36,495, about -8.5% vs the U.S. campus median ($39,899).

The median campus reports 85.2% of its 8-year cohort as working and not enrolled—our closest federal proxy to a placement rate. The U.S. campus median is 85.5% (-0.3 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 54.3% 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 8.0% (U.S. 11.1%); 3-yr repayment progress 38.6% (U.S. 50.5%). 3-yr default is omitted when most campuses report suppressed zeros.

Nationally, Georgia ranks earnings #39 and employment proxy #29 on these outcome medians (1 = best).

Top employment-outcome campuses in this extract include Grady Health System Professional Schools (93.2%), Gwinnett College-Marietta Campus (90.4%), Fortis College-Smyrna (90.1%), East Georgia State College (89.9%), Georgia State University-Perimeter College (89.5%), Georgia Highlands College (89.5%), Lincoln College of Technology-East Point (89.1%), Miami Ad School-Atlanta (88.9%), Atlanta Metropolitan State College (88.7%), Georgia Military College (88.7%)—useful anchors for local reporting on where graduates are most often working rather than still enrolled.

Completion & workforce context

Within Georgia, sector medians diverge: Private for-profit median 10-yr earnings $32,651 (33 campuses); Public median 10-yr earnings $39,246 (30 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 Georgia is 52.4% (national institution average about 66.8%).