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Best Value Culinary Arts Basic Certificate Schools in North Carolina

2023 Best Value Culinary Arts Basic Certificate Schools in North Carolina

Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Pricing

8 Colleges
$2,584 Avg Tuition & Fees*

Finding the Best Culinary Arts Basic Certificate 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.

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 North Carolina to help you in your search for the best school for you. This report analyzed 8 schools in North Carolina 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.

Best North Carolina Schools for Affordable Quality for an Award Taking Less Than 1 Year in Culinary Arts

Our analysis found Wake Technical Community College to be the best value school for culinary arts students who want to pursue a basic certificate in North Carolina. Wake Technical Community College is a fairly large public school located in the suburb of Raleigh.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state undergraduate at Wake Technical Community College are $2,768 a year.

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You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend Central Piedmont Community College. The school came in at #2 on this year’s Best Value Culinary Arts Basic Certificate Schools in North Carolina list. Located in the city of Charlotte, Central Piedmont Community College is a public college with a fairly large student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state undergraduate at Central Piedmont Community College are $2,792 a year.

Central Piedmont Community College also made our Best Culinary Arts Basic Certificate Trade Schools in North Carolina list, coming in at #3.

Full Culinary Arts at Central Piedmont Community College Report

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You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend Central Carolina Community College. The school came in at #3 on this year’s Best Value Culinary Arts Basic Certificate Schools in North Carolina list. Central Carolina Community College is a medium-sized public school located in the town of Sanford.

Central Carolina Community College undergraduate students pay an average of $2,554 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

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The excellent basic certificate programs at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College helped the school earn the #4 place on this year’s ranking of the best value culinary arts schools in North Carolina. Located in the small city of Asheville, A-B Tech is a public college with a moderately-sized student population.

A-B Tech undergraduate students pay an average of $2,832 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

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A rank of #5 on this year’s list means Guilford Technical Community College is a great value for culinary arts students working on their basic certificate. Guilford Technical Community College is a large public school located in the suburb of Jamestown.

Guilford Technical Community College undergraduate students pay an average of $2,319 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

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Southwestern Community 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 #6 on the list. Located in the distant town of Sylva, Southwestern Community College is a public college with a small student population.

Southwestern Community College undergraduate students pay an average of $2,229 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

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Fayetteville Technical Community College ranked #7 on this year’s Best Value Culinary Arts Basic Certificate Schools in North Carolina list. Located in the city of Fayetteville, FTCC is a public school with a fairly large student population.

FTCC undergraduate students pay an average of $2,564 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

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#8

Carteret Community College

Morehead City, NC

Carteret Community 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 #8 on the list. Located in the distant 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.

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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
South Carolina 215
Georgia 864
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 8 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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