Arkansas 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 $9,833 (+3.5% above the U.S. median of $9,500, and +2.3% 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: #36 nationally of 58 (lower debt = better rank); #9 in Southeast of 12 (1 = lowest median debt).

Earnings, employment & retention

Among bachelor's-predominant campuses with ≥200 students, median 10-year earnings in Arkansas are $36,254, about -9.1% vs the U.S. campus median ($39,899).

The median campus reports 84.9% 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% (-0.6 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 72.2% 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 14.6% (U.S. 11.1%); 3-yr repayment progress 57.1% (U.S. 50.5%). 3-yr default is omitted when most campuses report suppressed zeros.

Nationally, Arkansas ranks earnings #40 and employment proxy #32 on these outcome medians (1 = best).

Top employment-outcome campuses in this extract include Baptist Health College Little Rock (93.1%), Arkansas State University-Newport (89.7%), Arkansas Tech University (89.5%), Arkansas State University Three Rivers (88.8%), Arkansas State University-Beebe (88.5%), University of Arkansas-Fort Smith (88.4%), Southern Arkansas University Tech (88.3%), South Arkansas College (88.1%), University of Arkansas at Monticello (88.1%), Phillips Community College of the University of Arkansas (88.1%)—useful anchors for local reporting on where graduates are most often working rather than still enrolled.

Completion & workforce context

Within Arkansas, sector medians diverge: Private for-profit median 10-yr earnings $27,308 (15 campuses); Public median 10-yr earnings $38,390 (26 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 Arkansas is 60.3% (national institution average about 66.8%).