Puerto Rico 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 $3,500 (-64.2% below the U.S. median of $9,792, and 0.0% vs the Outlying Areas regional median of $3,500). Low sticker prices do not always mean low borrowing—living costs, time-to-degree, and aid mix matter.

Student debt rank: #1 nationally of 58 (lower debt = better rank); #1 in Outlying Areas of 7 (1 = lowest median debt).

Earnings, employment & retention

Among bachelor's-predominant campuses with ≥200 students, median 10-year earnings in Puerto Rico are $20,944, about -40.3% vs the U.S. campus median ($35,086).

The median campus reports 67.7% 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% (-13.3 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 57.8% 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 2.9% (U.S. 11.1%); 3-yr repayment progress 42.0% (U.S. 50.5%). 3-yr default is omitted when most campuses report suppressed zeros.

Nationally, Puerto Rico ranks earnings #57 and employment proxy #47 on these outcome medians (1 = best).

Top employment-outcome campuses in this extract include Universidad Central Del Caribe (86.4%), Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Department of Education-PRAMI (79.3%), Instituto Tecnologico de Puerto Rico-Recinto de Guayama (79.3%), Escuela De Troqueleria Y Herramentaje (79.3%), Instituto Tecnologico de Puerto Rico-Recinto de Manati (79.3%), Instituto Tecnologico de Puerto Rico-Recinto de San Juan (79.3%), Colegio Universitario de San Juan (78.4%), Escuela Tecnica de Electricidad (77.2%), University of Puerto Rico-Utuado (77.1%), Mech-Tech College (74.8%)—useful anchors for local reporting on where graduates are most often working rather than still enrolled.

Completion & workforce context

Within Puerto Rico, sector medians diverge: Private for-profit median 10-yr earnings $20,216 (43 campuses); Private nonprofit median 10-yr earnings $20,064 (5 campuses); Public median 10-yr earnings $26,293 (7 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 Puerto Rico is 68.7% (national institution average about 61.5%).