Puerto Rico 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 $5,500 (-42.1% below the U.S. median of $9,500, and 0.0% vs the Outlying Areas regional median of $5,500). Low sticker prices do not always mean low borrowing—living costs, time-to-degree, and aid mix matter.

Student debt rank: #1 nationally of 58 (lower debt = better rank); #1 in Outlying Areas of 7 (1 = lowest median debt).

Earnings, employment & retention

Among bachelor's-predominant campuses with ≥200 students, median 10-year earnings in Puerto Rico are $23,740, about -40.5% vs the U.S. campus median ($39,899).

The median campus reports 74.8% of its 8-year cohort as working and not enrolled—our closest federal proxy to a placement rate. The U.S. campus median is 85.5% (-10.7 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 57.8% 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 2.9% (U.S. 11.1%); 3-yr repayment progress 42.0% (U.S. 50.5%). 3-yr default is omitted when most campuses report suppressed zeros.

Nationally, Puerto Rico ranks earnings #58 and employment proxy #54 on these outcome medians (1 = best).

Top employment-outcome campuses in this extract include Universidad Central Del Caribe (86.9%), Advantage Technical College (85.2%), Advantage Technical College-Aguadilla (85.2%), Advantage Technical College (85.2%), Escuela Tecnica de Electricidad (82.7%), University of Puerto Rico-Utuado (82.4%), NUC University (82.0%), Colegio Universitario de San Juan (81.3%), Escuela De Troqueleria Y Herramentaje (80.7%), Instituto Tecnologico de Puerto Rico-Recinto de San Juan (80.7%)—useful anchors for local reporting on where graduates are most often working rather than still enrolled.

Completion & workforce context

Within Puerto Rico, sector medians diverge: Private for-profit median 10-yr earnings $22,952 (43 campuses); Private nonprofit median 10-yr earnings $24,652 (5 campuses); Public median 10-yr earnings $30,407 (7 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 Puerto Rico is 72.2% (national institution average about 66.8%).