The Best Automotive Trade Schools by Value

Finding The Best Automotive Trade Schools

There are many factors that you must account for when choosing a trade school. Location, cost, future job opportunities, specializations, training style, financial aid options and housing should all factor into your decision making process. While it’s hard to definitively name the best automotive trade schools in the nation, we put together a list of the best auto mechanic schools based on value and return on investment, which should help you with your search.

We looked at the top overall trade schools in the nation and then narrowed them down by eliminating those who did not offer accredited automotive degrees or their training did not equal the rest of the field. All of the schools listed here are accredited and offer the education you will need to start a career as an auto mechanic. This includes the training you will need in order to earn your ASE (Automotive Service Excellence) certification which will help you on your way to earn more pay as an automotive technician.

Many of these schools offer a wide variety of automotive degrees such as automotive technology, diesel technology, engine performance, diagnostic training, collision repair, and auto body. Some of them even include motorcycle technology and different agricultural equipment technologies. To ensure students get their career path on track, these schools have partnered with manufacturers as well to create specialized training programs from diesel powered Caterpillar to the American classic, Ford. These are the best automotive trade schools that will get you on track to starting your dream career as an auto mechanic.

Criteria to Pick the Best Auto Mechanic Schools

In order to build our rankings of the best automotive schools by value, we needed a few parameters to help rank the schools. Since rating the quality of education is quite difficult, we decided we would look at the success of students and their return on investment (ROI) in their tuition costs. Therefore, we landed on the five parameters that we scored automotive colleges on: average cost of tuition, typical debt-load of graduates, average early career salary, average mid-career salary and graduation rate.

While these don’t account for all of the factors, these five criteria give a great picture into the success of students after graduating from these schools and help students evaluate whether a trade school is worth the cost or not. Keep in mind that all of these schools were judged as a whole and that certain degree programs affect these statistics. Obviously, these are averages and these numbers are not guaranteed for any student. In order to find all of this information we used two major resources, College Scorecard and Payscale. These provided us all the information and some checks and balances for accurate information to determine the best automotive trade schools.

Check out the best auto mechanic schools to help with your evaluation process!

1. Frontier Community College
   • Fairfield, IL
   • Mid-Career Salary: $59,300
   • Annual Cost: $2,400
   • Typical Debt: $5,500
2. North Central Kansas Technical College
   • Beloit, KS
   • Mid-Career Salary: $60,100
   • Annual Cost: $12,251
   • Typical Debt: $9,500
3. Lake Area Technical Institute
   • Watertown, SD
   • Mid-Career Salary: $59,300
   • Annual Cost: $12,441
   • Typical Debt: $12,000
4. Rosedale Technical College
   • Pittsburgh, PA
   • Mid-Career Salary: $60,400
   • Annual Cost: $15,270
   • Typical Debt: $12,000
5. Mitchell Technical Institute
   • Mitchell, SD
   • Mid-Career Salary: $59,400
   • Annual Cost: $11,908
   • Typical Debt: $12,000
6. Bates Technical College
   • Tacoma, WA
   • Mid-Career Salary: $70,500
   • Annual Cost: $11,908
   • Typical Debt: $0
7. Salina Area Technical College
   • Salina, KS
   • Mid-Career Salary: $49,100
   • Annual Cost: $6,673
   • Typical Debt: $5,500
8. Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology
   • Lancaster, PA
   • Mid-Career Salary: $62,700
   • Annual Cost: $7,508
   • Typical Debt: $8,704
9. State Technical College of Missouri
   • Linn, MO
   • Mid-Career Salary: $59,700
   • Annual Cost: $10,288
   • Typical Debt: $10,421
10. Northwest Iowa Community College
    • Sheldon, IA
    • Mid-Career Salary: $64,400
    • Annual Cost: $10,538
    • Typical Debt: $9,500