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Best Value Culinary Arts Associate Degree Schools in North Carolina

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2023 Best Value Culinary Arts Associate Degree Schools in North Carolina

Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Pricing

11 Colleges
$5,801 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$25,389 Avg Salary

Finding the Best Culinary Arts Associate Degree School for You

With 811 degrees and certificates handed out in 2021-2022, culinary arts is the #11 most popular major in North Carolina.

Today's trade school students have lots of options to pick from when considering higher education opportunities. You can choose a traditional brick and mortar school, or with the growth of online education, you can attend a school half-way across the country without even leaving your house.

To assist you in seeing some of the education options that are available to you, Trade College Search has created its Best Value Culinary Arts Associate Degree Schools in North Carolina ranking. This report analyzed 11 schools in North Carolina to see which ones offered the best value associate degree programs for culinary arts students. The goal was to highlight schools with more affordable prices than others offering similar quality experiences.

When determining this ranking, we place a high emphasis on the school's quality as well as its sticker price. Even though a college may be affordable, it may not offer value. Specifically, our score for quality is discounted by the published tuition and fees charged by the given college. This gives the cost per unit of quality for each college. The more quality your dollar buys, the better the value.

Our calculations use out-of-state tuition and fees in our nationwide and regional rankings. For statewide rankings, we use average in-state tuition and fees.

2023 Best Value Culinary Arts Associate Degree Schools in North Carolina

The following schools top our list of the Best Value Culinary Arts Associate Degree Colleges.

Top 10 Best Culinary Arts Associate Degree Schools

Our 2023 rankings named Wake Technical Community College the best value school in North Carolina for culinary arts students working on their associate degree. Wake Technical Community College is a very large public school located in the suburb of Raleigh.

In-state tuition fees for undergraduate students at Wake Technical Community College are $2,768 per year. The average amount in student loans that culinary arts majors at Wake Technical Community College take out while working on their Associate Degree is $20,302.

Read full report on Culinary Arts at Wake Technical Community College

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend Central Carolina Community College. The school came in at #2 on this year’s Best Value Culinary Arts Associate Degree Schools in North Carolina list. Central Carolina Community College is a moderately-sized public school located in the town of Sanford.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state undergraduate at Central Carolina Community College are $2,554 a year.

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A rank of #3 on this year’s list means Central Piedmont Community College is a great value for culinary arts students working on their associate degree. Located in the large city of Charlotte, Central Piedmont Community College is a public college with a large student population.

Central Piedmont Community College undergraduate students pay an average of $2,792 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Central Piedmont Community College not only placed well in our value ranking, but it is also #2 on our Best Culinary Arts Associate Degree Trade Schools in North Carolina list.

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You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College. It ranked #4 on our 2023 Best Value Culinary Arts Associate Degree Schools in North Carolina list. Located in the city of Asheville, A-B Tech is a public college with a moderately-sized student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state undergraduate at A-B Tech are $2,832 a year.

Read full report on Culinary Arts at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Guilford Technical Community College. It ranked #5 on our 2023 Best Value Culinary Arts Associate Degree Schools in North Carolina list. Guilford Technical Community College is a large public school located in the midsize suburb of Jamestown.

In-state tuition fees for undergraduate students at Guilford Technical Community College are $2,319 per year. Culinary Arts majors at Guilford Technical Community College take out an average of $28,153 in student loans while working on their Associate Degree.

Full Culinary Arts at Guilford Technical Community College Report

With a ranking of #6, Southwestern Community College did quite well on this year’s best value schools for culinary arts students working on their associate degree. Located in the distant town of Sylva, Southwestern Community College is a public college with a small student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state undergraduate at Southwestern Community College are $2,229 a year.

Full Culinary Arts at Southwestern Community College Report

Fayetteville Technical Community College came in at #7 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Culinary Arts Associate Degree Schools in North Carolina ranking. Located in the medium-sized city of Fayetteville, FTCC is a public college with a fairly large student population.

In-state tuition fees for undergraduate students at FTCC are $2,564 per year.

Full Culinary Arts at Fayetteville Technical Community College Report

Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute landed the #8 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value associate degree culinary arts programs. CCCTI is a small public school located in the medium-sized suburb of Hudson.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state undergraduate at CCCTI are $2,537 a year.

Full Culinary Arts at Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute Report

#9

Robeson Community College

Lumberton, NC

Robeson Community College ranked #9 on this year’s Best Value Culinary Arts Associate Degree Schools in North Carolina list. Robeson Community College is a small public school located in the distant town of Lumberton.

Robeson Community College undergraduate students pay an average of $2,563 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Read full report on Culinary Arts at Robeson Community College

#10

Carteret Community College

Morehead City, NC

With a ranking of #10, Carteret Community College did quite well on this year’s best value schools for culinary arts students working on their associate degree. Located in the town of Morehead City, Carteret Community College is a public school with a small student population.

In-state tuition fees for undergraduate students at Carteret Community College are $2,610 per year.

Read More…

Best Value Culinary Arts Colleges in the Southeast Region

Explore all the Best Value Culinary Arts Schools in the Southeast Area or other specific states within that region.

State Degrees Awarded
Georgia 864
South Carolina 215
Arkansas 283
Florida 1,298
West Virginia 59
Louisiana 367
Virginia 357
Alabama 94
Kentucky 359
Tennessee 104
Mississippi 320

One of 4 majors within the trade school area of study, culinary arts has other similar majors worth exploring.

Culinary Arts Focus Areas

Major Annual Graduates
Culinary Arts/Chef Training 10,546
Baking & Pastry Arts/Baker/Pastry Chef 5,029
General Cooking & Related Culinary Arts 3,303
Restaurant, Culinary, & Catering Management/Manager 1,394
Food Preparation/Professional Cooking/Kitchen Assistant 786
Other Culinary Arts & Related Services 335
Institutional Food Workers 204
Culinary Science/Culinology 203
Bartending/Bartender 157
Food Service, Waiter/Waitress, & Dining Room Management/Manager 82
Meat Cutting/Meat Cutter 28
Wine Steward/Sommelier 8

Majors Similar to Culinary Arts

Related Major Annual Graduates
Cosmetology 124,611
Funeral & Mortuary Science 2,186
Casino Operations and Services 385
Other Personal & Culinary Services 95

Notes and References

*These averages are for the top 11 schools only.

  • The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
  • Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
  • Credit for the banner image above goes to U.S. Army Europe Images.

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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