Drafting/Design Engineering Technologies/Technicians at Everett Community College

At $12,984 in estimated debt against first-year earnings around $45,400, this program's debt burden appears manageable—that's roughly three months of salary, which most graduates can handle. However, both figures come from national medians of similar drafting and design programs since Everett's own graduate outcomes aren't available due to small sample sizes. This means we're working with educated guesses rather than this school's actual track record.

The national benchmark itself—$45,434 in first-year earnings—sits in a moderate range for an associate degree in a technical field. Drafting technicians typically enter stable industries like architecture, engineering, and manufacturing, where demand for CAD skills remains consistent. The debt-to-earnings ratio of 0.29 suggests reasonable leverage if those earnings materialize, though parents should recognize that outcomes for Washington programs might differ from the national average, and Everett's specific program could perform either better or worse than its peers.

The challenge here is that twelve Washington schools offer this program, but none have publicly reported outcomes we can use for meaningful comparison. This leaves you betting on national patterns holding true locally. Given Washington's strong aerospace and construction sectors, the regional job market could support these careers well—but without actual data from Everett or similar Washington programs, you're essentially trusting that this program performs at least as well as the national median. If cost and debt stay near these estimates, it's a reasonable gamble for students committed to technical design work.