Great Oaks Career Campuses HVAC (Certificate): Tuition, Graduate Salary, and Debt
- Certificate in Heating, Air Conditioning, Ventilation and Refrigeration Maintenance Technology/Technician (HAC, HACR, HVAC, HVACR)
- Public school
- Cincinnati, OH
- About 15 graduates a year
College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025
The short answer
Great Oaks Career Campuses HVAC graduates earn about what HVAC graduates earn nationally, $36,172 in their first year. Where this program stands out is debt. The typical graduate leaves with $8,152 in federal loans, less than at 82% of HVAC programs in the country. Strong value, but not one of the highest-paying HVAC programs in Ohio.
How it compares
Each figure is the median for graduates of the program. The Ohio and national columns are the medians across all HVAC certificate programs that report the figure.
Five years out, Great Oaks Career Campuses graduates earn more than the national figure and about $10,461 more than the Ohio median.
Debt and first-year pay at every Ohio HVAC program
Programs in the upper left give graduates higher pay for less debt. Dashed lines mark the Ohio 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 48% between the first and fifth year. Heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration mechanics and installers in Ohio earn a median of $62,510 across all experience levels, which shows how much room there is to grow after the first few years.
Year 1 and year 5 figures come from different graduating classes, so the growth rate is an estimate. BLS figures cover heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration mechanics and installers at every experience level.
Paying back the loans
On a standard 10-year plan, the median debt means a payment of about $86 a month, or 2.9% 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 Ohio one year after graduating. Prices in the Cincinnati area are about 5% below the national average, so a $36,172 salary here buys what about $37,928 buys in a typical US city.
The median Ohio HVAC technician earns $62,510, compared with a national median of $61,010. After adjusting for Ohio prices, that pay is worth about $67,379, which puts Ohio ahead.
Careers this field leads to
These are the jobs that the federal crosswalk from fields of study to occupations links to HVAC, largest first. Pay is the median across all experience levels.
Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers
$62,510Median pay in Ohio. 14,150 people work in this job in Ohio. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 11% from 2025 to 2035, with about 40,600 openings a year. Typical education to start: postsecondary nondegree award.
About Great Oaks Career Campuses
HVAC ranks 7th of 9 certificate programs at Great Oaks Career Campuses by first-year earnings. The top three are Criminal Justice ($60,896), Electromechanical Technology ($41,669), and Fire Science ($41,349).
Other HVAC certificate programs near Cincinnati
Common questions
The median graduate earns $36,172 one year after graduating and $53,431 five years after. Heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration mechanics and installers in the Cincinnati metro area earn a median of $62,240 across all experience levels.
The median federal loan balance is $8,152, which ranks 2nd lowest of 8 HVAC certificate programs in Ohio. That works out to about $86 a month over 10 years.
On the numbers, yes for most students. Debt equals 23% of first-year earnings, against a national median of 29%. If the highest possible early salary is the main goal, several Ohio programs report higher pay, usually with more debt.
Most do. 91% (43 of 47) were working in Ohio 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 Ohio 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 HVAC 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