Wisconsin 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 $8,854 (-9.6% below the U.S. median of $9,792, and -6.8% vs the Great Lakes regional median of $9,500). Low sticker prices do not always mean low borrowing—living costs, time-to-degree, and aid mix matter.

Student debt rank: #11 nationally of 58 (lower debt = better rank); #2 in Great Lakes of 5 (1 = lowest median debt).

Earnings, employment & retention

Among bachelor's-predominant campuses with ≥200 students, median 10-year earnings in Wisconsin are $36,909, about +5.2% vs the U.S. campus median ($35,086).

The median campus reports 87.0% 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% (+6.0 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 40.0% 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 10.5% (U.S. 11.1%); 3-yr repayment progress 58.1% (U.S. 50.5%). 3-yr default is omitted when most campuses report suppressed zeros.

Nationally, Wisconsin ranks earnings #22 and employment proxy #4 on these outcome medians (1 = best).

Top employment-outcome campuses in this extract include The Salon Professional Academy-Appleton (93.2%), The Salon Professional Academy-Kenosha (92.6%), Chippewa Valley Technical College (91.1%), Western Technical College (90.2%), Northwood Technical College (90.1%), The Institute of Beauty and Wellness Madison (89.8%), The Institute of Beauty and Wellness (89.8%), Moraine Park Technical College (89.8%), Waukesha County Technical College (89.6%), Fox Valley Technical College (89.5%)—useful anchors for local reporting on where graduates are most often working rather than still enrolled.

Completion & workforce context

Within Wisconsin, sector medians diverge: Private for-profit median 10-yr earnings $27,414 (17 campuses); Public median 10-yr earnings $44,371 (17 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 Wisconsin is 57.5% (national institution average about 61.5%).