Health and Medical Administrative Services at Ross Medical Education Center-Ann Arbor

This certificate gives you the troubling combination of flat earnings and relatively high debt. While graduates earn slightly above Michigan's median for this program ($28,570 versus $24,779), they're starting at barely livable wages that don't improve—earnings essentially flatline at around $28,700 even four years out. Compare that to Ferris State grads earning $68,630, and you see the ceiling here.

The $9,500 debt sits at the 75th percentile nationally, meaning most similar programs saddle students with less debt. For a population where 87% receive Pell grants, that matters enormously. The debt-to-earnings ratio of 0.33 translates to roughly four months of gross income—manageable on paper, but less so when you're trying to build a life on $28,000 annually in the Ann Arbor area.

Here's the bottom line: your child could earn essentially the same amount with less debt at nearby community colleges, or they could invest more time in an associate's or bachelor's program that actually leads somewhere higher. This certificate gets them working quickly but locks them into entry-level administrative wages indefinitely. If they need immediate employment, it functions—but barely. If they can afford to aim higher, they should.