Health and Medical Administrative Services at Fayetteville Technical Community College

The backwards trajectory here should give you pause—starting at $28,668 and dropping to $26,362 four years later isn't what you hope for when investing in career training. This puts Fayetteville Tech's program below the middle of the pack both nationally (31st percentile) and within North Carolina (40th percentile), where the state median sits at $30,157. The top NC community colleges are producing graduates who earn $35,000 to $38,000, making this program's outcomes notably weaker by comparison.

The debt load of $21,893 is actually lower than both state and national medians, which helps soften the blow. A debt-to-earnings ratio of 0.76 is reasonable for an associate's degree, meaning graduates could theoretically pay off their loans in under a year of full-time earnings—if those earnings hold steady, which they haven't for recent cohorts.

The critical caveat: this data comes from fewer than 30 graduates, so these numbers could swing dramatically with a different cohort. But even accounting for that uncertainty, the pattern of declining earnings and below-average outcomes compared to nearby alternatives like Wake Tech or Durham Tech suggests this isn't where you want to place your bet for healthcare administration training. If you're committed to this field, the stronger programs in North Carolina offer clearer paths to financial stability.