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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.

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

The following schools top our list of the Best Value Culinary Arts Basic Certificate Colleges.

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 school with a moderately-sized student population.

CVTC undergraduate students pay an average of $6,793 in tuition and fees each year.

On top of its placing in our value ranking, CVTC also did well on our Best Culinary Arts Basic Certificate Trade Schools in the Great Lakes Region list. It’s in the top 10% of all schools reviewed in this analysis.

Full Culinary Arts at Chippewa Valley Technical College Report

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend Madison Area Technical College. The school came in at #2 on this year’s Best Value Culinary Arts Basic Certificate Schools in the Great Lakes Region list. Located in the city of Madison, Madison College is a public school with a fairly large student population.

Madison College undergraduate students pay an average of $6,812 in tuition and fees each year.

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

Full Culinary Arts at Madison Area Technical College Report

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend Gateway Technical College. The school came in at #3 on this year’s Best Value Culinary Arts Basic Certificate Schools in the Great Lakes Region list. Gateway Technical College is a moderately-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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You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Fox Valley Technical College. It ranked #4 on our 2023 Best Value Culinary Arts Basic Certificate Schools in the Great Lakes Region list. FVTC is a fairly large public school located in the suburb of Appleton.

Out-of-state tuition fees for undergraduate students at FVTC are $6,977 per year.

FVTC did well in our overall quality rankings, too. It placed #5 on our Best Culinary Arts Basic Certificate Trade Schools in the Great Lakes Region list.

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#5

Schoolcraft College

Livonia, MI

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Schoolcraft College. It ranked #5 on our 2023 Best Value Culinary Arts Basic Certificate Schools in the Great Lakes Region list. Located in the small city of Livonia, Schoolcraft College is a public college with a moderately-sized student population.

Out-of-state tuition fees for undergraduate students at Schoolcraft College are $7,652 per 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 moderately-sized public school located in the city of Cincinnati.

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

Full Culinary Arts at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College Report

Milwaukee Area Technical College ranked #7 on this year’s Best Value Culinary Arts Basic Certificate Schools in the Great Lakes Region list. MATC is a large public school located in the large city of Milwaukee.

Out-of-state tuition fees for undergraduate students at MATC are $7,018 per year.

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#8

Ivy Tech Community College

Indianapolis, IN

Ivy Tech Community College landed the #8 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value basic certificate culinary arts programs. Ivy Tech Community College is a fairly large public school located in the city of Indianapolis.

The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state undergraduate student at Ivy Tech Community College are $8,927 a year.

Ivy Tech Community College excels when it comes to quality. It’s ranked in the top 10% of all schools on our Best Culinary Arts Basic Certificate Trade Schools in the Great Lakes Region list.

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Sinclair Community College ranked #9 on this year’s Best Value Culinary Arts Basic Certificate Schools in the Great Lakes Region list. Sinclair Community College is a fairly large public school located in the city of Dayton.

Out-of-state tuition fees for undergraduate students at Sinclair Community College are $8,316 per year.

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#10

Lake Land College

Mattoon, IL

Lake Land College landed the #10 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value basic certificate culinary arts programs. 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.

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Best Culinary Arts Colleges by State

Explore the best culinary arts colleges 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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