415 ASE accredited automotive programs at 415 schools, ranked for 2027 on cost, graduate earnings, completion and track record. De Anza College (Cupertino, CA) is first.
By Trevor Rupe, Contributor at Savo Media Group Updated
At a Glance
415 programs hold ASE Education Foundation accreditation in the Automobile area and meet the federal entry bar.
The median program charges about $4,728 a year in tuition and fees; Lassen Community College is lowest at $1,144 a year, in-state.
The median graduation rate is 43%, counted for the whole school.
BLS reports a May 2025 median of $50,620 for automotive service technicians and mechanics (SOC 49-3023).
The score is the same for every auto mechanic school on the site, so a 70 here means what a 70 means on any other list.
The Top 10 Auto Mechanic Schools
Each card shows what the auto mechanic school charges, how many of its students finish and what its graduates earn. The 25 highest-scoring programs of 415. Each score is out of 100 and comes from the method below.
Rank 1
Automotive Technology
De Anza College
Cupertino, CA
Score80.6
ASE Accredited Program
Public
Associate in Science (A.S.)
Cost
$1,571a year, in-state
Graduation rate
68%within 150% of normal time
Awards
201in 2024-25
Why it ranks here
Earns its place with a price toward the low end of ranked automotive programs ($1,571 a year, in-state), a 68% graduation rate and 201 awards in 2024-25, among the larger automotive programs.
Source: IPEDS 2024-25 (provisional) and the ASE accreditation list.
Rank 2
Automotive Technology
Pasadena City College
Pasadena, CA
Score76.6
ASE Accredited Program
Public
Associate in Science
Honda PACT
Cost
$1,180a year, in-state
Graduation rate
48%within 150% of normal time
Awards
171in 2024-25
Why it ranks here
Scores well on a price toward the low end of ranked automotive programs ($1,180 a year, in-state) and 171 awards in 2024-25, among the larger automotive programs.
Source: IPEDS 2024-25 (provisional), College Scorecard and the ASE accreditation list.
Rank 4
Automotive Service Technology
Tarrant County College District
Fort Worth, TX
Score75.1
ASE Accredited Program
Public
AAS
Mopar CAP
Toyota T-TEN
Cost
$1,863a year, in-district
Graduation rate
34%within 150% of normal time
Graduate earnings
$70,953median four years after completing, certificate level; school-wide across its mechanic programs
Awards
87in 2024-25
Why it ranks here
Earns its place with a price toward the low end of ranked automotive programs ($1,863 a year, in-district), graduates earning a median $70,953 and 87 awards in 2024-25.
Graduate earnings: four years after finishing, certificate level; school-wide, covering its mechanic programs
Source: IPEDS 2024-25 (provisional), College Scorecard and the ASE accreditation list.
Rank 5
Automotive and Related Technology
Los Angeles Trade Technical College
Los Angeles, CA
Score74.2
ASE Accredited Program
Public
Automotive and Related Technology
Cost
$1,238a year, in-state
Graduation rate
35%within 150% of normal time
Graduate earnings
$54,643median four years after completing, certificate level; school-wide across its mechanic programs
Awards
251in 2024-25
Why it ranks here
Scores well on a price toward the low end of ranked automotive programs ($1,238 a year, in-state) and 251 awards in 2024-25, among the larger automotive programs.
Graduate earnings: four years after finishing, certificate level; school-wide, covering its mechanic programs
Source: IPEDS 2024-25 (provisional) and the ASE accreditation list.
Rank 9
Automotive Technology
Cypress College
Cypress, CA
Score71.1
ASE Accredited Program
Public
Associate in Science, 73 units
Toyota T-TEN
Cost
$1,150a year, in-state
Graduation rate
37%within 150% of normal time
Awards
258in 2024-25
Why it ranks here
Stands out for a price toward the low end of ranked automotive programs ($1,150 a year, in-state) and 258 awards in 2024-25, among the larger automotive programs.
Each program is scored out of 100 on five published measures, and the scores are absolute: no program is scaled to the top
one, so a score of 70 means the same thing on every list and every state page. This list is in score order. A program is on this list when the ASE Education Foundation accredits it in the Automobile area and it meets the entry bar.
The five scored factors and their weights
Factor
Weight
What it reads
Cost
25 of 100
What a year of tuition and fees costs, compared with every other ranked program in the same area.
Graduate Earnings
25 of 100
What the school’s graduates in mechanic and repair programs earn, from federal data.
Completion
20 of 100
The share of the school’s first-time, full-time students who finish within 150% of normal time.
Track Record
15 of 100
How many credentials the program awards in a year.
Program Reputation
15 of 100
A 0 to 4 rating of how employers in the trade regard the program, made by Cloudflare’s Clef language model from the same few facts for every program.
Ties are broken by Cost, then Graduate Earnings, then school name. Scores are shown to one decimal and programs are ordered by the unrounded score, so two programs can show the same score at different ranks. How We Rank gives the formulas, the data sources and the disclosures for each figure.
Automobile Accreditation From the ASE Education Foundation
The ASE Education Foundation accredits programs, not whole schools, at the secondary and postsecondary levels in three areas: Automobile, Medium/Heavy Duty Truck, and Collision Repair and Refinishing. This list uses the Automobile area only. Accreditation lasts five years, and a program that does not renew comes off the Foundation’s list. On November 3, 2026, when the list was last read, the ranked program at every auto mechanic school here held an unexpired accreditation.
Accreditation is not ASE certification. ASE certifies individual technicians: to earn an ASE certification a person passes an ASE test and has full-time, hands-on work experience, or a combination of formal training and experience. The ASE A-series covers eight core areas, from Engine Repair (A1) to Engine Performance (A8), and technicians certified in A1 through A8 are recognized as Master Automobile Technicians. Technicians retest every five years to keep a certification.
What the Numbers Show About Automotive Programs
The list covers 415 automotive programs at 415 schools in 48 states and territories. The median school graduates 43% of its first-time, full-time students, counted over one and a half times the normal program length. The median program charges about $4,728 a year in tuition and fees, from $1,144 a year, in-state at Lassen Community College (Susanville, CA) to $43,400 for the 12-month program at Universal Technical Institute-Orlando (Orlando, FL).
280 of the 415 programs award associate’s degrees, and the rest award certificates. 371 are at public institutions and 31 at private for-profit schools. The states with the most ranked programs are Florida (38), California (37) and Texas (24).
How to Choose an Auto Mechanic School
The first check at any auto mechanic school is whether the Automobile program is accredited by the ASE Education Foundation, which accredits programs, not the college around them. Every program on this list holds it, so what is left to compare is price, completion and what graduates go on to earn.
Price comes with a unit. Community colleges that charge by the year sit at the low end, while some schools price the whole program and show its length, so read each cost with its unit before setting one auto mechanic school against another.
The graduation rate on each card is the whole school’s. The graduate earnings figure is a College Scorecard median for mechanic and repair graduates, and it shows what the graduates of an auto mechanic school earn after they finish.
An auto mechanic school is one route into the job; the career guide covers the others.
Questions About Auto Mechanic Schools
How are the best automotive schools chosen?
Only accredited programs are ranked, and each is scored out of 100 from published federal data. Programs are ranked on cost (25 points), graduate earnings (25), completion (20), track record (15) and program reputation (15). Scores are absolute, and every list and state page keeps the same national scores. How We Rank gives the formulas and the data sources.
How much does automotive school cost?
Among the 415 programs on this list, the median reports about $4,728 a year in tuition and fees for 2024-25, from $1,144 a year, in-state at Lassen Community College in Susanville, CA to $43,400 for the 12-month program at Universal Technical Institute-Orlando in Orlando, FL. Community colleges that charge by the year sit at the low end; schools that price the whole program show that price and its length on each card, and the yearly figure is only what the cost score reads. Books, tools and living costs are not included.
What does the graduation rate on each card measure?
It is the federal graduation rate within 150% of normal time for the whole school: of the first-time, full-time students who started, the share who finished a credential within one and a half times its normal length. It is not a rate for the trade program alone, and a school with a small entering class can show a rate near 0% or 100%.
Where do the graduate earnings figures come from?
They are College Scorecard medians for the school’s graduates in mechanic and repair programs (federal field 47.06), four years after completing where that is published and one year after where it is not. Scorecard pools every mechanic and repair program a school offers at that credential level, and a chain’s campuses share one figure, so a card’s earnings figure describes the school’s graduates in these trades, not one program alone.
How much do automotive technicians earn?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a median of $50,620 a year for automotive service technicians and mechanics (SOC 49-3023) in its May 2025 estimates, with the lowest-paid tenth earning under $34,660 and the highest-paid tenth over $81,790. Pay depends on the state, the employer and the work; each state ranking on this site shows the state’s median.
How do I pick an auto mechanic school?
Start with accreditation: an auto mechanic school is ranked here only when its program holds ASE Education Foundation accreditation in the Automobile area. Then compare the price with its unit, the graduation rate and the graduate earnings on each card, which are the same measures the score reads.
Is a community college a good auto mechanic school?
Many are on this list. A community college that charges by the year usually sits at the low end on cost, and its program still has to hold ASE Education Foundation accreditation to be ranked here.
Sources for Auto Mechanic Schools
U.S. Department of Education, IPEDS Completions (awards July 2024 to June 2025, provisional), tuition and fees for 2024-25, graduation rates within 150% of normal time and the institutional directory.
This site earns money from sponsored school listings served by the education ad network Esyoh, which are marked as ads wherever they appear. Schools pay to appear in those listings, not in the rankings: a listing is not scored, and no listing can change a ranking. Rankings come from published records, and program details from each school’s own published pages.
