Allied Health Diagnostic, Intervention, and Treatment Professions at Atlanta Technical College

Start by acknowledging the small sample size here—with fewer than 30 graduates tracked, these numbers could shift significantly year to year. That said, the pattern is concerning enough to warrant attention: graduates earn roughly $10,000 less than the typical Georgia program in this field and nearly $14,000 below the national median.

The state comparison is particularly revealing. While Atlanta Technical College ranks in the 25th percentile among Georgia programs, several other technical colleges in the state—Georgia Northwestern, Gwinnett Tech, Augusta Tech—are placing graduates into jobs earning $57,000 to $60,000 annually. These aren't private universities with higher tuition; they're similar public technical colleges. The debt load here ($25,516) is actually higher than Georgia's median for this program ($15,225), creating a double squeeze of lower earnings and higher borrowing.

For a family considering this investment, the question becomes: why choose a program that underperforms comparable Georgia options by $17,000-$20,000 in annual earnings? If location in Atlanta is the priority, this may still work—the debt-to-earnings ratio of 0.63 is manageable, and over half of students receive Pell grants, suggesting the college serves students who need accessible options. But if mobility is possible, looking at one of those higher-performing technical colleges could mean an extra $800-$1,600 per month in take-home pay, which matters enormously for early-career financial stability.