Ohio 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 $9,750 (-0.4% below the U.S. median of $9,792, and +2.6% 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: #26 nationally of 58 (lower debt = better rank); #5 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 Ohio are $37,558, about +7.0% vs the U.S. campus median ($35,086).

The median campus reports 84.8% 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% (+3.8 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 50.0% 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 11.7% (U.S. 11.1%); 3-yr repayment progress 49.0% (U.S. 50.5%). 3-yr default is omitted when most campuses report suppressed zeros.

Nationally, Ohio ranks earnings #19 and employment proxy #11 on these outcome medians (1 = best).

Top employment-outcome campuses in this extract include Firelands Regional Medical Center School of Nursing (100.0%), Tri-Rivers Career Center (94.0%), Mahoning County Career and Technical Center (93.5%), Bowling Green State University-Firelands (92.9%), Hondros College of Nursing (92.5%), Choffin Career and Technical Center (92.1%), Butler Technology and Career Development Schools (92.0%), Ohio State University-Newark Campus (91.5%), Ohio State University-Marion Campus (91.5%), Ohio State University-Mansfield Campus (91.5%)—useful anchors for local reporting on where graduates are most often working rather than still enrolled.

Completion & workforce context

Within Ohio, sector medians diverge: Private for-profit median 10-yr earnings $29,898 (60 campuses); Private nonprofit median 10-yr earnings $50,672 (6 campuses); Public median 10-yr earnings $41,360 (74 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 Ohio is 70.8% (national institution average about 61.5%).