New York 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 $9,500 (-3.0% below the U.S. median of $9,792, and -7.9% vs the Mid East regional median of $10,312). Low sticker prices do not always mean low borrowing—living costs, time-to-degree, and aid mix matter.

Student debt rank: #21 nationally of 58 (lower debt = better rank); #1 in Mid East of 6 (1 = lowest median debt).

Earnings, employment & retention

Among bachelor's-predominant campuses with ≥200 students, median 10-year earnings in New York are $40,330, about +14.9% vs the U.S. campus median ($35,086).

The median campus reports 41.3% 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% (-39.7 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 79.2% 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 10.0% (U.S. 11.1%); 3-yr repayment progress 53.2% (U.S. 50.5%). 3-yr default is omitted when most campuses report suppressed zeros.

Nationally, New York ranks earnings #7 and employment proxy #49 on these outcome medians (1 = best).

Top employment-outcome campuses in this extract include American Musical and Dramatic Academy (80.2%), Lincoln Technical Institute-Whitestone (80.1%), Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater (77.3%), The Ailey School (73.0%), Empire Beauty School-Queens (70.3%), Word of Life Bible Institute (64.9%), Gemological Institute of America-New York (64.6%), Empire Beauty School-Buffalo (60.3%), Empire Beauty School-Rochester (55.3%), Empire Beauty School-Manhattan (55.3%)—useful anchors for local reporting on where graduates are most often working rather than still enrolled.

Completion & workforce context

Within New York, sector medians diverge: Private for-profit median 10-yr earnings $31,997 (53 campuses); Private nonprofit median 10-yr earnings $29,382 (19 campuses); Public median 10-yr earnings $42,090 (53 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 New York is 73.6% (national institution average about 61.5%).