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Most Popular Culinary Arts Trade Schools in the Great Lakes Region

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2023 Most Popular Culinary Arts Trade Schools in the Great Lakes Region

75 Colleges
$25,807 Avg Salary
$15,954 Avg Student Debt

Finding the Best Culinary Arts School for You

Culinary Arts is the #11 most popular major in the country with 19,784 degrees and certificates awarded in 2020-2021.

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.

To help you arm yourself with the information you need to make your decision, Trade College Search has developed this Most Popular Culinary Arts Trade Schools in the Great Lakes Region ranking. This report analyzed 75 schools in the Great Lakes Region to see which ones were the most popular programs for trade school students. To create this ranking we looked at how many students graduated from the Culinary Arts program at each school on the list.

The colleges and universities below are the most popular for culinary arts majors pursuing a .

#1

Ivy Tech Community College

Indianapolis, IN

Our analysis found Ivy Tech Community College to be the most popular school for culinary arts students who want to pursue a degree in the Great Lakes Region . Ivy Tech Community College is a fairly large public school located in the large city of Indianapolis.

Read full report on Culinary Arts at Ivy Tech Community College

The excellent programs at City Colleges of Chicago - Kennedy-King College helped the school earn the #2 place on this year’s ranking of the best culinary arts schools in the Great Lakes Region . Kennedy-King College is a small public school located in the city of Chicago.

Full Culinary Arts at City Colleges of Chicago - Kennedy-King College Report

#3

College of Lake County

Grayslake, IL

The excellent programs at College of Lake County helped the school earn the #3 place on this year’s ranking of the best culinary arts schools in the Great Lakes Region . Located in the large suburb of Grayslake, College of Lake County is a public school with a fairly large student population.

Read More…

A rank of #4 on this year’s list means Elgin Community College is a great place for culinary arts students. ECC is a moderately-sized public school located in the medium-sized city of Elgin.

Read full report on Culinary Arts at Elgin Community College

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend Sinclair Community College. The school came in at #5 on this year’s Most Popular Culinary Arts Trade Schools in the Great Lakes Region list. Sinclair Community College is a fairly large public school located in the medium-sized city of Dayton.

Read full report on Culinary Arts at Sinclair Community College

Fox Valley Technical College did quite well in this year’s ranking of the most popular schools for culinary arts students. It came in at #6 on the list. FVTC is a fairly large public school located in the suburb of Appleton.

Read full report on Culinary Arts at Fox Valley Technical College

#7

Grand Rapids Community College

Grand Rapids, MI

Grand Rapids Community College came in at #7 in this year’s edition of the Most Popular Culinary Arts Trade Schools in the Great Lakes Region ranking. Located in the midsize city of Grand Rapids, Grand Rapids Community College is a public school with a large student population.

Full Culinary Arts at Grand Rapids Community College Report

Cuyahoga Community College District came in at #8 in this year’s edition of the Most Popular Culinary Arts Trade Schools in the Great Lakes Region ranking. Located in the city of Cleveland, Cuyahoga Community College District is a public school with a large student population.

Read full report on Culinary Arts at Cuyahoga Community College District

#9

Schoolcraft College

Livonia, MI

Schoolcraft College landed the #9 spot in the 2023 rankings for the most popular culinary arts programs. Located in the city of Livonia, Schoolcraft College is a public college with a medium-sized student population.

Read full report on Culinary Arts at Schoolcraft College

National Louis University ranked #10 on this year’s Most Popular Culinary Arts Trade Schools in the Great Lakes Region list. Located in the large city of Chicago, NLU is a private not-for-profit school with a medium-sized student population.

Read full report on Culinary Arts at National Louis University

Gateway Technical College came in at #11 in this year’s edition of the Most Popular Culinary Arts Trade Schools in the Great Lakes Region ranking. Gateway Technical College is a moderately-sized public school located in the medium-sized suburb of Kenosha.

Read More…

Honorable Mentions

These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also popular but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Most Popular Culinary Arts Trade Schools in the Great Lakes Region award.

Rank College Location
12 Madison Area Technical College Madison, WI
13 Joliet Junior College Joliet, IL
14 Cincinnati State Technical and Community College Cincinnati, OH
15 Baker College Owosso, MI

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 9,052
Baking & Pastry Arts/Baker/Pastry Chef 4,322
General Cooking & Related Culinary Arts 3,156
Restaurant, Culinary, & Catering Management/Manager 1,380
Food Preparation/Professional Cooking/Kitchen Assistant 801
Other Culinary Arts & Related Services 411
Culinary Science/Culinology 196
Bartending/Bartender 183
Institutional Food Workers 157
Food Service, Waiter/Waitress, & Dining Room Management/Manager 84
Meat Cutting/Meat Cutter 35
Wine Steward/Sommelier 7

Majors Similar to Culinary Arts

Related Major Annual Graduates
Cosmetology 107,895
Funeral & Mortuary Science 2,354
Casino Operations and Services 192
Other Personal & Culinary Services 81

Notes and References

*These averages are for the top 26 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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