Mental and Social Health Services and Allied Professions at Northcentral Technical College

The troubling pattern here is unmistakable: graduates earn $32,481 in their first year, then see their income drop to $29,324 by year four—a 10% decline when most careers should be gaining momentum. While Northcentral Technical College performs slightly better than Wisconsin's median for this program (ranking in the 60th percentile statewide), that's cold comfort when top programs like Fox Valley Technical and Milwaukee Area Technical are placing graduates into careers earning $43,000 to $37,000. This isn't a minor gap—it's a difference that compounds to hundreds of thousands of dollars over a career.

The debt load of $16,759 looks manageable at first glance, representing about half of first-year earnings. But when earnings are declining rather than growing, that ratio becomes less favorable over time. For an associate's degree in social services—a field often driven by passion rather than compensation—families need to ask hard questions about sustainability. Can a graduate comfortably make loan payments on an income trending toward $29,000?

If your child is committed to this field and Northcentral is the only local option, the relatively modest debt means it won't be catastrophic. But if Fox Valley or Milwaukee Area Technical are within reach, those programs demonstrate that substantially better outcomes are possible in the same field. The declining earnings trajectory here suggests structural issues—whether in job placement, credential value, or program design—that should concern any parent writing tuition checks.