Health and Medical Administrative Services at Herkimer County Community College

The small sample size here is a real red flag—with fewer than 30 graduates tracked, these numbers could swing dramatically with just a few individual outcomes. That said, the debt burden relative to first-year earnings deserves scrutiny. At $28,134, graduates carry nearly three times the national median debt for this certificate ($10,372) and significantly more than the New York state median ($16,467), while earning about $3,000 less than the typical New York graduate in this field.

That debt-to-earnings ratio of 1.11 means graduates owe more than they'll earn in their entire first year—a challenging position for anyone trying to establish financial footing. While this program ranks at the 40th percentile among New York schools (essentially middle-of-the-pack), several community colleges and trade schools in the state deliver similar or better earnings with roughly half the debt load. Hunter Business School and DeVry graduates, for instance, earn $6,000-$7,000 more annually.

Given the high proportion of Pell-eligible students at Herkimer (40%), many families here are already financially stretched. Unless circumstances have changed dramatically since this cohort graduated, or there's something unique about the program not captured in the data, families should explore alternative paths to medical administrative careers—whether that's other New York schools with lower debt burdens or direct entry-level positions that offer on-the-job training without the certificate cost.