Oklahoma 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 0.0% vs the Southwest 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: #18 nationally of 58 (lower debt = better rank); #3 in Southwest of 4 (1 = lowest median debt).

Earnings, employment & retention

Among bachelor's-predominant campuses with ≥200 students, median 10-year earnings in Oklahoma are $39,171, about -1.8% vs the U.S. campus median ($39,899).

The median campus reports 82.3% 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% (-3.2 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 53.9% 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 8.2% (U.S. 11.1%); 3-yr repayment progress 50.7% (U.S. 50.5%). 3-yr default is omitted when most campuses report suppressed zeros.

Nationally, Oklahoma ranks earnings #31 and employment proxy #49 on these outcome medians (1 = best).

Top employment-outcome campuses in this extract include Eastern Oklahoma County Technology Center (94.4%), Langston University (91.9%), Southwest Technology Center (89.9%), Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology (89.5%), Northern Oklahoma College (87.2%), Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College (87.0%), Murray State College (86.7%), Rose State College (86.3%), Oklahoma State University-Oklahoma City (86.2%), Mid-America Technology Center (85.9%)—useful anchors for local reporting on where graduates are most often working rather than still enrolled.

Completion & workforce context

Within Oklahoma, sector medians diverge: Private for-profit median 10-yr earnings $24,025 (9 campuses); Private nonprofit median 10-yr earnings $33,508 (3 campuses); Public median 10-yr earnings $40,102 (43 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 Oklahoma is 68.8% (national institution average about 66.8%).