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Best Value Culinary Arts Undergraduate Certificate Schools in the Southwest Region

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2023 Best Value Culinary Arts Undergraduate Certificate Schools in the Southwest Region

Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Pricing

18 Colleges
$10,877 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$20,089 Avg Salary

Finding the Best Culinary Arts Undergraduate 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.

It's not easy to decide which trade school program to enroll in when you have so many options available. As online education oppotunities continue to grow, you're not restricted to just schools in your local area anymore. Even some of the 'big name' schools are offering online courses.

The Best Value Culinary Arts Undergraduate Certificate Schools in the Southwest Region ranking is one of many tools that Trade College Search has developed to help you make your educational decision. Our analysis looked at 18 schools in the Southwest Region to see which undergraduate certificate programs offered the best value experiences for culinary arts students with the aim of identifying those quality schools that are more affordable than some of their counterparts.

Our ranking of value is based on the quality of a program as defined in our per sticker price dollar. 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.

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

2023 Best Value Culinary Arts Undergraduate Certificate Schools in the Southwest Region

Check out the culinary arts undergraduate certificate programs at these schools if you want to get the best value for your educational dollar.

Top 10 Best Culinary Arts Undergraduate Certificate Schools

#1

El Centro College

Dallas, TX

Our analysis found El Centro College to be the best value school for culinary arts students who want to pursue a undergraduate certificate in the Southwest Region . Located in the large city of Dallas, El Centro College is a public college with a very large student population.

Out-of-state tuition fees for undergraduate students at El Centro College are $6,000 per year. Culinary Arts majors at El Centro College take out an average of $9,389 in student loans while working on their Undergraduate Certificate.

El Centro College also took the #1 spot in our Best Culinary Arts Undergraduate Certificate Trade Schools in the Southwest Region rankings.

Read full report on Culinary Arts at El Centro College

A rank of #2 on this year’s list means San Jacinto Community College is a great value for culinary arts students working on their undergraduate certificate. Located in the suburb of Pasadena, San Jacinto College is a public college with a very large student population.

Out-of-state tuition fees for undergraduate students at San Jacinto College are $5,040 per year.

Read full report on Culinary Arts at San Jacinto Community College

#3

Grayson College

Denison, TX

Out of the 18 schools in the Southwest Region that were part of this year’s ranking, Grayson College landed the # 3 spot on the list. Located in the rural area of Denison, Grayson College is a public school with a small student population.

Out-of-state tuition fees for undergraduate students at Grayson College are $5,692 per year.

Read More…

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Houston Community College. It ranked #4 on our 2023 Best Value Culinary Arts Undergraduate Certificate Schools in the Southwest Region list. Houston Community College is a fairly large public school located in the city of Houston.

Out-of-state tuition fees for undergraduate students at Houston Community College are $5,460 per year. While working on their Undergraduate Certificate, culinary arts majors at Houston Community College accumulate an average of around $22,358 in student debt.

Read More…

A rank of #5 on this year’s list means El Paso Community College is a great value for culinary arts students working on their undergraduate certificate. Located in the city of El Paso, El Paso Community College is a public school with a very large student population.

Out-of-state tuition fees for undergraduate students at El Paso Community College are $5,314 per year.

Full Culinary Arts at El Paso Community College Report

#6

Culinary Institute Inc

Houston, TX

Culinary Institute Inc came in at #6 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Culinary Arts Undergraduate Certificate Schools in the Southwest Region ranking. Culinary Institute LeNotre is a small private for-profit school located in the city of Houston.

The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state undergraduate student at Culinary Institute LeNotre are $17,279 a year. Culinary Arts majors at Culinary Institute LeNotre take out an average of $11,463 in student loans while working on their Undergraduate Certificate.

Full Culinary Arts at Culinary Institute Inc Report

With a ranking of #7, Austin Community College District did quite well on this year’s best value schools for culinary arts students working on their undergraduate certificate. Located in the large city of Austin, Austin Community College District is a public college with a very large student population.

Out-of-state tuition fees for undergraduate students at Austin Community College District are $10,590 per year.

Full Culinary Arts at Austin Community College District Report

Tarrant County College District landed the #8 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value undergraduate certificate culinary arts programs. Tarrant County College is a fairly large public school located in the large city of Fort Worth.

The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state undergraduate student at Tarrant County College are $8,235 a year. While working on their Undergraduate Certificate, culinary arts majors at Tarrant County College accumulate an average of around $15,691 in student debt.

Read More…

Pima Community College ranked #9 on this year’s Best Value Culinary Arts Undergraduate Certificate Schools in the Southwest Region list. Pima County Community College District is a large public school located in the large city of Tucson.

The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state undergraduate student at Pima County Community College District are $7,614 a year.

Full Culinary Arts at Pima Community College Report

Texas State Technical College came in at #10 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Culinary Arts Undergraduate Certificate Schools in the Southwest Region ranking. Located in the midsize city of Waco, TSTC is a public college with a large student population.

TSTC undergraduate students pay an average of $11,094 in tuition and fees each year. After completing their Undergraduate Certificate, culinary arts graduates from TSTC carry an average student debtload of $10,733.

TSTC also took the #2 spot in our Best Culinary Arts Undergraduate Certificate Trade Schools in the Southwest Region rankings.

Read More…

Best Culinary Arts Colleges by State

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

State Degrees Awarded
Arizona 376
Texas 1,430
Oklahoma 332
New Mexico 109

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

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 18 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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