Vehicle Maintenance and Repair Technologies at City Colleges of Chicago-Kennedy-King College

Based on comparable automotive programs in Illinois, Kennedy-King graduates might expect to earn around $51,000 in their first year—well above the national median of $43,000 for this field and matching the state average. With estimated debt of $11,425, you're looking at a debt burden equal to just 22% of first-year earnings, which is manageable territory for a technical credential. The debt figure is actually lower than both the state and national medians for this program type.

The challenge here is that we're working entirely with estimates, since this specific program's graduate cohort is too small for the Department of Education to publish actual outcomes. The earnings projection comes from just three Illinois programs, and some variation exists: Illinois Central College graduates earn $58,000 while Lincoln College of Technology graduates start around $37,000. Chicago's robust automotive service market should favor Kennedy-King, but there's no guarantee this program will land at the higher end of that range.

If your child is committed to automotive repair and wants to stay in the Chicago area, the estimated financial picture looks reasonable—low debt paired with middle-class starting wages. Just understand you're making this decision with limited hard data on how Kennedy-King's specific program performs, and outcomes in this field can vary by $20,000 depending on the school and connections to local employers.