Des Moines Area Community College Welding and Machining (Certificate): Tuition, Graduate Salary, and Debt
- Certificate in Precision Metal Working
- Public college
- Ankeny, IA
- About 321 graduates a year
College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025
The short answer
Des Moines Area Community College welding and machining graduates earn about what welding and machining graduates earn nationally, $39,397 in their first year. Where this program stands out is debt. The typical graduate leaves with $5,500 in federal loans, less than at 80% of welding and machining programs in the country. Strong value, but not one of the highest-paying welding and machining programs in Iowa.
How it compares
Each figure is the median for graduates of the program. The Iowa and national columns are the medians across all welding and machining certificate programs that report the figure.
Five years out, Des Moines Area Community College graduates earn more than the national figure and about $2,694 more than the Iowa median.
Debt and first-year pay at every Iowa welding and machining program
Programs in the upper left give graduates higher pay for less debt. Dashed lines mark the Iowa 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 34% between the first and fifth year.
Year 1 and year 5 figures come from different graduating classes, so the growth rate is an estimate.
Does family income change the outcome?
Graduates who received Pell Grants, which go to students from lower-income families, earned $7,334 less in their first year than other graduates. Students who expect to rely on grants should weigh this gap.
Paying back the loans
On a standard 10-year plan, the median debt means a payment of about $58 a month, or 1.8% 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
91% of graduates (43 of 47) were working in Iowa one year after graduating. Prices in the Des Moines area are about 8% below the national average, so a $39,397 salary here buys what about $42,962 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 welding and machining, largest first. Pay is the median across all experience levels.
Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers
$55,090Median pay in Iowa. 9,270 people work in this job in Iowa. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 2% from 2025 to 2035, with about 40,300 openings a year. Typical education to start: high school diploma or equivalent.
Machinists
$57,540Median pay in Iowa. 2,880 people work in this job in Iowa. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 1% from 2025 to 2035, with about 26,100 openings a year. Typical education to start: high school diploma or equivalent.
Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
$48,240Median pay in Iowa. 2,030 people work in this job in Iowa. Nationally, jobs are projected to shrink 11% from 2025 to 2035, with about 13,200 openings a year. Typical education to start: high school diploma or equivalent.
Computer Numerically Controlled Tool Operators
$52,300Median pay in Iowa. 4,750 people work in this job in Iowa. Nationally, jobs are projected to shrink 9% from 2025 to 2035, with about 12,500 openings a year. Typical education to start: high school diploma or equivalent.
About Des Moines Area Community College
Welding and Machining ranks 4th of 9 certificate programs at Des Moines Area Community College by first-year earnings. The top three are Homeland Security ($54,209), Funeral Service and Mortuary Science ($49,355), and Diagnostic and Treatment Professions ($45,688).
Common questions
The median graduate earns $39,397 one year after graduating and $52,978 five years after. The median across welding and machining certificate programs in Iowa is $41,613.
The median federal loan balance is $5,500, which ranks 2nd lowest of 5 welding and machining certificate programs in Iowa. That works out to about $58 a month over 10 years.
On the numbers, yes for most students. Debt equals 14% of first-year earnings, against a national median of 22%, 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 Iowa programs report higher pay, usually with more debt.
Most do. 91% (43 of 47) were working in Iowa 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 Iowa 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 welding and machining 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