CET-San Jose Office Administration (Certificate): Tuition, Graduate Salary, and Debt
- Certificate in Business Operations Support and Assistant Services
- Private nonprofit school
- San Jose, CA
College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025
The short answer
CET-San Jose office administration graduates earn about what office administration graduates earn nationally, $23,009 in their first year. Where this program stands out is debt. The typical graduate leaves with $5,894 in federal loans, less than at 93% of office administration programs in the country. Strong value, but not one of the highest-paying office administration programs in California.
How it compares
Each figure is the median for graduates of the program. The California and national columns are the medians across all office administration certificate programs that report the figure.
Five years out, CET-San Jose graduates earn less than the national figure and about the same as the California median.
Debt and first-year pay at every California office administration program
Programs in the upper left give graduates higher pay for less debt. Dashed lines mark the California medians.
Hover over or tap a dot to see the school. Only programs that report both earnings and debt are shown.
What graduates earn over time
Pay rises about 18% between the first and fifth year.
Year 1 and year 5 figures come from different graduating classes, so the growth rate is an estimate.
Paying back the loans
On a standard 10-year plan, the median debt means a payment of about $62 a month, or 3.2% of a graduate's typical monthly pay in the first year.
The government publishes these as ranges to protect privacy. They were measured in 2018 to 2020, partly during the pandemic pause on federal loan payments, so the forbearance share may be higher than usual.
Where graduates work, and what the pay is worth
93% of graduates (83 of 89) were working in California one year after graduating. Prices in the San Jose area are about 10% above the national average, so a $23,009 salary here buys what about $20,837 buys in a typical US city.
Careers this field leads to
These are the jobs that the federal crosswalk from fields of study to occupations links to office administration, largest first. Pay is the median across all experience levels.
Customer Service Representatives
$49,560Median pay in California. 176,850 people work in this job in California. Nationally, jobs are projected to shrink 5% from 2025 to 2035, with about 289,500 openings a year. Typical education to start: high school diploma or equivalent.
Office Clerks, General
$48,460Median pay in California. 311,490 people work in this job in California. Nationally, jobs are projected to shrink 6% from 2025 to 2035, with about 249,000 openings a year. Typical education to start: high school diploma or equivalent.
Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive
$55,400Median pay in California. 158,630 people work in this job in California. Nationally, jobs are projected to shrink 6% from 2025 to 2035, with about 163,900 openings a year. Typical education to start: high school diploma or equivalent.
First-Line Supervisors of Office and Administrative Support Workers
$77,590Median pay in California. 149,230 people work in this job in California. Nationally, jobs are projected to stay about the same in number from 2025 to 2035, with about 127,400 openings a year. Typical education to start: high school diploma or equivalent, plus less than 5 years of related work experience.
About CET-San Jose
Office Administration ranks 10th of 12 certificate programs at CET-San Jose by first-year earnings. The top three are Electronics Repair ($42,828), HVAC ($35,970), and Housing and Human Environments ($35,261).
Common questions
The median graduate earns $23,009 one year after graduating and $27,178 five years after. The median across office administration certificate programs in California is $25,145.
The median federal loan balance is $5,894, which ranks the lowest of 7 office administration certificate programs in California. That works out to about $62 a month over 10 years.
On the numbers, yes for most students. Debt equals 26% of first-year earnings, against a national median of 46%, and the share of borrowers in default two years into repayment is 20% or less. If the highest possible early salary is the main goal, several California programs report higher pay, usually with more debt.
Most do. 93% (83 of 89) were working in California one year after graduating.
About this data
- Earnings and debt only include students who received federal financial aid (grants or loans).
- Earnings only count graduates who were working and not enrolled in more school. Graduates who went straight to further study are not included.
- Debt only includes federal loans. Private loans and credit cards are not counted.
- Some schools with several campuses report one combined figure for all of them. We count each of those schools once, and leave them out of California comparisons when their main campus is in another state.
- Scorecard figures describe graduating classes from several years ago. BLS wages are from May 2025.
- School-level numbers like tuition, admission rate, and graduation rate are for the whole school, not the office administration program.
Sources
- U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard, field of study and institution files, June 2026 release
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2025 to 2035
- Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Price Parities, 2024
- NCES, CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk, and IPEDS institution directory, 2024