Vehicle Maintenance and Repair Technologies at Northeastern Junior College

Earning $39,000 in your first year out of a vehicle maintenance program sounds reasonable until you see that comparable programs in Colorado are producing a fairly tight earnings range—from roughly $36,000 to $42,000. Northeastern's estimated outcomes land squarely in the middle of this pack, based on peer programs across the state. The estimated $9,500 in debt is actually lower than what similar programs typically carry, both in Colorado (where the median is $10,462) and nationally ($11,000). That 0.24 debt-to-earnings ratio means you'd owe about three months of gross pay, which is manageable for a credential you can complete relatively quickly.

The challenge here is visibility. With so few graduates that the Department of Education can't publish actual outcomes, you're making this decision based entirely on what similar Colorado automotive programs produce—not what Northeastern specifically delivers. The tight clustering of earnings across Colorado automotive programs (most fall between $38,000-$42,000) suggests the local labor market more than the specific school determines your prospects. If your child can complete this certificate with minimal debt and has mechanic work lined up, the numbers work. But without actual graduate outcomes from this program, you're betting that Northeastern's training and employer connections match those of the larger Colorado programs that do have published results.