Colorado 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 $9,500 (0.0% below the U.S. median of $9,500, and +8.7% vs the Rocky Mountains regional median of $8,742). Low sticker prices do not always mean low borrowing—living costs, time-to-degree, and aid mix matter.

Student debt rank: #18 nationally of 58 (lower debt = better rank); #4 in Rocky Mountains of 5 (1 = lowest median debt).

Earnings, employment & retention

Among bachelor's-predominant campuses with ≥200 students, median 10-year earnings in Colorado are $42,409, about +6.3% vs the U.S. campus median ($39,899).

The median campus reports 84.7% of its 8-year cohort as working and not enrolled—our closest federal proxy to a placement rate. The U.S. campus median is 85.5% (-0.8 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 68.0% 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 16.0% (U.S. 11.1%); 3-yr repayment progress 52.6% (U.S. 50.5%). 3-yr default is omitted when most campuses report suppressed zeros.

Nationally, Colorado ranks earnings #20 and employment proxy #33 on these outcome medians (1 = best).

Top employment-outcome campuses in this extract include Concorde Career College-Aurora (91.2%), Colorado Mesa University (90.6%), Lincoln College of Technology-Denver (89.4%), Pima Medical Institute-Aurora (88.1%), Northeastern Junior College (87.9%), Pima Medical Institute-Denver (87.7%), Pima Medical Institute-Colorado Springs (87.7%), Colorado Mountain College (87.6%), Arapahoe Community College (87.3%), Colorado Northwestern Community College (87.2%)—useful anchors for local reporting on where graduates are most often working rather than still enrolled.

Completion & workforce context

Within Colorado, sector medians diverge: Private for-profit median 10-yr earnings $37,134 (20 campuses); Public median 10-yr earnings $45,162 (19 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 Colorado is 72.3% (national institution average about 66.8%).