Arizona 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 $8,521 (-13.0% below the U.S. median of $9,792, and -13.3% vs the Southwest regional median of $9,825). Low sticker prices do not always mean low borrowing—living costs, time-to-degree, and aid mix matter.

Student debt rank: #6 nationally of 58 (lower debt = better rank); #1 in Southwest of 4 (1 = lowest median debt).

Earnings, employment & retention

Among bachelor's-predominant campuses with ≥200 students, median 10-year earnings in Arizona are $37,143, about +5.9% vs the U.S. campus median ($35,086).

The median campus reports 79.2% of its 8-year cohort as working and not enrolled—our closest federal proxy to a placement rate. The U.S. campus median is 81.0% (-1.8 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 57.1% 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 13.0% (U.S. 11.1%); 3-yr repayment progress 41.5% (U.S. 50.5%). 3-yr default is omitted when most campuses report suppressed zeros.

Nationally, Arizona ranks earnings #21 and employment proxy #40 on these outcome medians (1 = best).

Top employment-outcome campuses in this extract include Aviation Institute of Maintenance-Phoenix (87.4%), Pima Medical Institute-Phoenix (85.3%), Coconino Community College (84.7%), Pima Medical Institute-East Valley (84.5%), Estrella Mountain Community College (84.2%), Chandler-Gilbert Community College (84.2%), Arizona Western College (83.7%), Glendale Community College (82.6%), Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences (82.6%), Carrington College-Mesa (82.5%)—useful anchors for local reporting on where graduates are most often working rather than still enrolled.

Completion & workforce context

Within Arizona, sector medians diverge: Private for-profit median 10-yr earnings $31,141 (41 campuses); Public median 10-yr earnings $40,420 (24 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 Arizona is 68.2% (national institution average about 61.5%).