Engineering Technologies/Technicians at Pittsburg State University

Pittsburg State's engineering technology program comes with an important caveat: we're looking at fewer than 30 graduates, which means a single year's data might not tell the whole story. That said, what we can see suggests reasonable outcomes at a manageable cost. Graduates earn $66,582 in their first year—right at the national median for engineering technology programs—while carrying just $21,235 in debt. That 0.32 debt-to-earnings ratio means graduates owe roughly four months of salary, substantially less than the typical engineering tech graduate nationwide.

The debt picture deserves emphasis here. This program ranks in the 95th percentile nationally for low debt—meaning only 5% of comparable programs leave students owing less. For families worried about loan burdens, that's meaningful. The tradeoff is that earnings aren't exceptional; they're solidly average for this field. But "average earnings with well-below-average debt" is often preferable to the reverse, particularly at a school with an 88% admission rate that serves a significant population of Pell Grant recipients.

The small sample size means you shouldn't bet the farm on these exact numbers holding steady year to year. But if your child is interested in hands-on engineering work and wants to avoid the debt loads common at many technical programs, Pittsburg State appears to deliver straightforward value without financial gymnastics required after graduation.