North Carolina 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 $11,317 (+19.1% above the U.S. median of $9,500, and +17.7% 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: #47 nationally of 58 (lower debt = better rank); #12 in Southeast of 12 (1 = lowest median debt).

Earnings, employment & retention

Among bachelor's-predominant campuses with ≥200 students, median 10-year earnings in North Carolina are $37,300, about -6.5% vs the U.S. campus median ($39,899).

The median campus reports 84.3% of its 8-year cohort as working and not enrolled—our closest federal proxy to a placement rate. The U.S. campus median is 85.5% (-1.2 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 100.0% 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 44.4% (U.S. 50.5%). 3-yr default is omitted when most campuses report suppressed zeros.

Nationally, North Carolina ranks earnings #36 and employment proxy #40 on these outcome medians (1 = best).

Top employment-outcome campuses in this extract include Alexander Paul Institute of Hair Design (96.8%), MyComputerCareer at Raleigh (91.8%), Carolinas College of Health Sciences (91.8%), Aviation Institute of Maintenance-Charlotte (90.4%), Durham Technical Community College (87.6%), Nash Community College (87.5%), Wake Technical Community College (87.4%), Catawba Valley Community College (87.2%), Southeastern College-Charlotte (86.6%), Forsyth Technical Community College (86.5%)—useful anchors for local reporting on where graduates are most often working rather than still enrolled.

Completion & workforce context

Within North Carolina, sector medians diverge: Private for-profit median 10-yr earnings $31,852 (20 campuses); Public median 10-yr earnings $38,309 (59 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 North Carolina is 48.0% (national institution average about 66.8%).