Electrical and Power Transmission Installers at UEI College-Mesa

A 28-cent debt-to-earnings ratio sounds manageable on paper, but these estimates—drawn from national peer programs rather than UEI-Mesa's actual outcomes—suggest first-year earnings around $38,700 against roughly $11,000 in debt. That's slightly above the national median debt for these programs ($9,500) and notably higher than what similar programs in Arizona typically carry ($7,125). For a family sending a student to a for-profit school where 73% of students need Pell grants, understanding where UEI-Mesa actually falls within this range matters considerably.

The wider Arizona market shows significant variation. Refrigeration School Inc, the one program in the state with reported outcomes, posts median earnings of $35,084—about $3,600 below what national comparables suggest for UEI-Mesa. That gap could represent a real advantage for this program, or it could simply reflect differences in estimation methods and student populations. With electrical work offering steady demand in Arizona's growing construction sector, the field itself has merit, but without actual graduate data from UEI-Mesa, you're making assumptions about how their specific training translates to local employment.

Before committing, pin down whether UEI-Mesa tracks job placement rates and starting wages for recent graduates, even if they can't publish aggregate data. A certificate program carrying $11,000 in debt needs to lead somewhere concrete—apprenticeships, union connections, or direct employer pipelines that the school can verify with names and numbers, not just national statistics.