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Best Value Culinary Arts Basic Certificate Schools in the Great Lakes Region

2023 Best Value Culinary Arts Basic Certificate Schools in the Great Lakes Region

Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Pricing

15 Colleges
$8,966 Avg Tuition & Fees*

Finding the Best Culinary Arts Basic Certificate School for You

Culinary Arts is the #11 most popular major in the country with 22,075 degrees and certificates awarded in 2021-2022.

Today's trade school students have lots of options to pick from when considering higher education opportunities. Along with traditional schools that require in-person attendence, you can attend one of many reputable online schools. Some programs even offer a hybrid experience.

Along with in-depth profiles of schools and the programs they offer, Trade College Search has created the Best Value Culinary Arts Basic Certificate Schools in the Great Lakes Region to help you in your search for the best school for you. This report analyzed 15 schools in the Great Lakes Region to see which ones offered the best value basic certificate 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.

Top 10 Best Culinary Arts Basic Certificate Schools

Our 2023 rankings named Chippewa Valley Technical College the best value school in the Great Lakes Region for culinary arts students working on their basic certificate. Located in the small city of Eau Claire, CVTC is a public college with a moderately-sized student population.

The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state undergraduate student at CVTC are $6,793 a year.

In addition to its great value ranking, CVTC is in the top 10% of all schools on our Best Culinary Arts Basic Certificate Trade Schools in the Great Lakes Region list.

Full Culinary Arts at Chippewa Valley Technical College Report

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A rank of #2 on this year’s list means Madison Area Technical College is a great value for culinary arts students working on their basic certificate. Located in the city of Madison, Madison College is a public college with a fairly large student population.

The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state undergraduate student at Madison College are $6,812 a year.

Madison College also took the #1 spot in our Best Culinary Arts Basic Certificate Trade Schools in the Great Lakes Region rankings.

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The excellent basic certificate programs at Gateway Technical College helped the school earn the #3 place on this year’s ranking of the best value culinary arts schools in the Great Lakes Region . Gateway Technical College is a medium-sized public school located in the midsize suburb of Kenosha.

Gateway Technical College undergraduate students pay an average of $6,917 in tuition and fees each year.

On top of its placing in our value ranking, Gateway Technical College also did well on our Best Culinary Arts Basic Certificate Trade Schools in the Great Lakes Region list. It’s in the top 15% of all schools reviewed in this analysis.

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The excellent basic certificate programs at Fox Valley Technical College helped the school earn the #4 place on this year’s ranking of the best value culinary arts schools in the Great Lakes Region . FVTC is a large public school located in the suburb of Appleton.

FVTC undergraduate students pay an average of $6,977 in tuition and fees each year.

In addition to its best value ranking, and one of the reasons why the school is on the list, FVTC is ranked #5 for overall quality for culinary arts in the Great Lakes Region .

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#5

Schoolcraft College

Livonia, MI

The excellent basic certificate programs at Schoolcraft College helped the school earn the #5 place on this year’s ranking of the best value culinary arts schools in the Great Lakes Region . Located in the city of Livonia, Schoolcraft College is a public college with a medium-sized student population.

The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state undergraduate student at Schoolcraft College are $7,652 a year.

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Cincinnati State Technical and Community College landed the #6 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value basic certificate culinary arts programs. Cincinnati State is a medium-sized public school located in the large city of Cincinnati.

Cincinnati State undergraduate students pay an average of $9,558 in tuition and fees each year.

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Milwaukee Area Technical College landed the #7 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value basic certificate culinary arts programs. MATC is a large public school located in the large city of Milwaukee.

The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state undergraduate student at MATC are $7,018 a year.

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#8

Ivy Tech Community College

Indianapolis, IN

With a ranking of #8, Ivy Tech Community College did quite well on this year’s best value schools for culinary arts students working on their basic certificate. Ivy Tech Community College is a very large public school located in the city of Indianapolis.

Out-of-state tuition fees for undergraduate students at Ivy Tech Community College are $8,927 per year.

As a testament to the quality of education it offers, Ivy Tech Community College also is in the top 10% of our Best Culinary Arts Basic Certificate Trade Schools in the Great Lakes Region ranking.

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With a ranking of #9, Sinclair Community College did quite well on this year’s best value schools for culinary arts students working on their basic certificate. Sinclair Community College is a large public school located in the city of Dayton.

The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state undergraduate student at Sinclair Community College are $8,316 a year.

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#10

Lake Land College

Mattoon, IL

Lake Land College did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for culinary arts students to get a basic certificate. It came in at #10 on the list. Lake Land College is a small public school located in the distant town of Mattoon.

Out-of-state tuition fees for undergraduate students at Lake Land College are $13,905 per year.

Full Culinary Arts at Lake Land College Report

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Best Culinary Arts Colleges by State

Explore the best culinary arts schools for a specific state in the Great Lakes region.

State Degrees Awarded
Michigan 413
Indiana 181
Wisconsin 333
Ohio 305
Illinois 668

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 15 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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