Certificate Earnings Explorer is a joint project of Open Campus and The HEA Group. The analysis and methodology were developed by The HEA Group.
Open Campus is a nonprofit newsroom covering higher education. The HEA Group is an independent research and policy organization focused on higher education outcomes and economic mobility.
Each row in the tool's program table contains five data points. Here's what each one means:
Institution |
State |
Major |
1 Graduates |
2 Earnings |
3 HS Median |
4 Earnings Premium |
5 Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The College of Health Care Professions-Northwest | TX | Allied Health Diagnostic Intervention and Treatment Professions | 343 | $41,318 | $33,298 | $8,020 | |
| Meridian Institute of Surgical Assisting | TN | Allied Health Diagnostic Intervention and Treatment Professions | 308 | $79,119 | $34,808 | $44,311 |
The number of graduates reflects financial aid recipients who completed a certificate in 2017-18 and/or 2018-19.
For those completers in 2017-19, their median earnings are measured in 2022 and/or 2023, inflation adjusted to 2024 dollars. Earnings include wages, salaries, and private business income. This data comes from a partnership between the U.S. Department of Education and the IRS, which matches federal aid recipients with their annual earnings—through tax records—four years after they've earned their credential.
The typical earnings of high school graduates, with no college experience, come from a five-year estimate within the 2023 American Community Survey. These numbers reflect the median earnings for people who: 1) have earned a high-school diploma, 2) have no college experience, 3) are between the ages of 25 and 34, 4) are not still in college and are employed at the time of measurement, and 5) have positive income. For college programs that enroll more than 50% of students from out of state, the national median of $34,808 is used to determine its "earnings premium," rather than the statewide median, which varies state by state.
Earnings premium is additional income of certificate holders in comparison to income of high school graduates with no college experience.
Tiers reflect the "earnings premium" that graduates earn in comparison to a typical high school graduate with no college experience. Ratings range from the highest tier (more than $25,000 premium) through $20,000–$24,999, $10,000–$19,999, $5,000–$9,999, and $1–$4,999, down to programs where graduates earn below the typical high school graduate.
All data are derived from the U.S. Department of Education. The analysis uses pooled 2017–18 and 2018–19 completer cohorts, with earnings measured four years later in calendar years 2022 and 2023, inflation-adjusted to 2024 dollars. The dataset includes the earnings—as captured through IRS tax records—for people who received federal financial aid, who were working, and who were not enrolled in college four years after exiting the program.
The median income benchmark for high school graduates are derived from the 2023 ACS 5-year estimates, retrieved from IPUMS, and reflect individuals aged 25–34 living in the same state as the college, with only a high school degree (or equivalent), not enrolled in college, and employed with positive, non-zero income. These are also inflation adjusted to reflect 2024 dollars.
For individual institutional comparisons, institutions where more than 50% of graduates are from out-of-state are compared to nationwide median data rather than state-level benchmarks.
The underlying program-level dataset is available for download. The file includes all certificate programs in the tool with earnings, graduate counts, state benchmarks, national benchmarks, and earnings premium for each individual certificate program.