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The September 2026 collection contains 66 career breakdowns across 32 fields and 225 selected training programs at 43 Oregon providers.
How we select careers and programs
We expand this collection to fill missing subject areas, improve regional access and explain workforce opportunities. Student interests, including beauty and personal care, matter alongside projected job openings. The first collection paired occupations in 20 editorial groups; the expanded collection includes more fields and preparation routes.
This is an editorial selection, not an official “top 100” or “top 200” ranking. We have not established that these profiles cover most Oregon programs, enrollment or completions. High growth can describe a small occupation; lower-growth occupations may still have substantial replacement openings. Suppressed projections remain unavailable.
We count each program profile once. The same subject at different providers can appear more than once because admission, location and training differ. Alternative BA/BS routes described together count as one profile. Career counts represent distinct occupation profiles and are reported separately from program counts; adding the two does not produce a count of unique programs.
Careers and programs start with Featured pathways, an editorial order that introduces a mix of healthcare, technology, skilled trades and other options. Featured programs include different credentials, providers and Oregon locations. This is not measured visitor popularity, an enrollment ranking or a rating of provider quality. Search terms take priority over featured placement. Visitors can choose A–Z; careers also offer wage and projected-openings sorts. Program subject filters group related study; the collection includes foundational degrees and direct occupational training.
Oregon occupational wages
We use the Oregon rows in the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics state file for May 2025, matched by six-digit Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code. The profiles show annual median wages, the 25th and 75th percentiles and, where published, the hourly median. The middle 50% is a distribution of wages, not a starting-pay range.
These estimates describe wage and salary workers across experience levels. They are not starting offers, take-home pay, full benefits or the earnings of graduates from a particular program. Annual wages generally use a full-time, year-round equivalent; actual annual earnings can differ with hours and weeks worked. Self-employed workers are not covered by OEWS.
Suppressed or unavailable values remain “Not published.” For example, this edition does not substitute a national figure for the missing Oregon information security analyst wage. We do not combine other years to fill that gap.
Oregon employment projections
We use the Oregon Employment Department’s 2024–2034 occupational projections, statewide detailed occupations, matched by SOC code. Employment change is the source’s ten-year percentage change. The annual openings figure is the source’s total ten-year openings divided by ten and rounded to a whole number.
Openings include growth and replacement needs, not just newly created jobs. These are model-based projections, not current job advertisements or a guarantee of future hiring. The typical entry education field describes an occupation broadly; it does not override a provider’s admissions criteria, an employer’s requirements or licensing rules.
Some statistical groups are broader than familiar job titles. The counseling profile, for example, uses the combined state group for substance abuse, behavioral disorder and mental health counselors. Its linked clinical counseling degree illustrates one route within that group. Career pages show the SOC code and explain this distinction.
Career descriptions and program matches
Plain-language work descriptions draw on O*NET occupation profiles. Training links were selected by comparing the work and route with an official provider’s program description. A related program is not necessarily a direct-entry qualification: some are foundational, some require a prior degree or experience, and licensing may involve extra steps.
The provider collection includes public colleges and universities and private career colleges. It is not a complete statewide inventory, and some regions have no listed provider. We do not assume a program is taught at every campus. Where a specific lab site, format or full sequence was not established, the profile asks readers to confirm it.
Each program displays its own source-review date. “Official page checked” means we reviewed the public source for the facts stated here. It is not institutional verification, endorsement, accreditation review, confirmation of an opening or a determination of eligibility. A recently accessed page may still contain older information.
Cost and graduate outcomes
Some profiles include dated provider cost figures or historical graduate earnings; others identify the information still missing. Published tuition, a school’s listed program charges, total attendance cost and net cost after aid are different measures. Where we calculate a tuition example, we state the rate, credits and exclusions. We have not assembled comparable complete prices or matched graduate outcomes across the entire collection. Missing evidence is not zero and is not a negative rating. The cost planner uses only the numbers entered by the visitor and does not estimate financial aid, loan terms or future earnings.
Before enrolling, request a current personal estimate that includes prerequisites, tuition, fees, equipment, exams, travel and living expenses for the same study period.
Graduate outcomes and missing data
Program profiles may show related-field graduate earnings from Census PSEO, Oregon release 2026 Q2. We select a matching institution and credential with a related field of study (four-digit CIP where available; separately labeled two-digit families for broad context, including master’s degrees), prefer the most recent available non-suppressed one-year cohort, and show later follow-up when available for that same cohort. If no one-year result is available, we may show a verified later follow-up for a named cohort. We may also show the Census-published all-cohort aggregate, explicitly labeled as combined graduating cohorts. Aggregate follow-up figures can represent different sets of graduates and should not be interpreted as the same group’s earnings growth. We do not calculate averages of cohort medians or fill suppressed cells. Certificate comparisons use the reported duration category, not the student’s part-time calendar. Program and credential matches are checked against provider catalogs, reported IPEDS completions classifications and accreditor program listings where available. These checks establish related context, not a verified exact-program result. A current program classification does not prove historical program continuity. Several programs can share the same field figure; those are not independent outcomes.
Census earnings are in 2023 dollars and cover graduates meeting its earnings and employment-attachment thresholds. They exclude noncompleters and many self-employed or intermittently employed workers. Privacy-protected or unavailable values remain missing.
College Scorecard results are labeled separately and cover federally aided completers who were working and not enrolled. We use the June 2026 field-of-study release where a reviewed institution, credential and related-field match is available. We prefer its four-year measure (2017-18 and 2018-19 completion cohorts; earnings in 2022 and 2023, expressed in 2024 dollars). If suppressed or unavailable, we check the five-year measure (2014-15 and 2015-16 cohorts) and then the one-year measure (2018-19 and 2019-20 cohorts); both use earnings in 2020 and 2021, expressed in 2022 dollars. These newer measures do not apply the earlier highest-credential restriction. A profile can retain a previously verified historical result when the newer record is suppressed: the older one- and two-year measures follow the highest credential, use earnings in 2017 and 2018, and are expressed in 2019 dollars. Every displayed result names its own cohort, follow-up period and dollar year. Measures from different cohorts do not describe one group’s earnings growth. Certificate categories combine lengths and specializations, and institutional branches may be pooled. A release date does not make the underlying earnings current. These populations and dollar years are not directly comparable with PSEO or occupational wages.
Tuition rates and annual institution budgets are labeled separately from full program prices. State training-directory estimates without a displayed price year are identified as estimates requiring a current provider quote. A degree minimum is not a guarantee of completion time. We do not replace suppressed outcomes with occupational salaries, invent missing costs or describe an unverified detail as complete.
September 16, 2026 evidence review
Across 225 profiles, 165 have cited graduate-earnings context and 223 include a numeric cost component. These counts do not mean exact-program outcomes or complete personal budgets. The remaining 60 earnings gaps and two cost gaps are documented in the review. Published results can be suppressed, unmatched to the current program or unavailable in the reviewed sources; missing figures are never treated as zero. HECC dashboard checks also found suppressed chart values rendered as $0 in tables, which we exclude.
School types and religious affiliation
Public or private describes institutional control. School type describes the provider: community college, college or university, career school, or trade school. These categories can overlap. A community college offering welding remains a community college; the program appears in Skilled trades. Career schools include beauty and massage providers. Specialized technical providers may appear under both Trade school and Career school.
Religious affiliation is a separate filter based on IPEDS 2024 institutional-characteristics reporting and current institutional identity pages, with newer explicit statements taking precedence. It does not describe an individual student’s beliefs or imply a religious admissions requirement. Historical connections alone are not treated as current affiliation. Where affiliation has not been established, we label it “Not yet verified” rather than assume. Check the linked provider sources for current mission and campus expectations.
Combining filters narrows the results. Public/private, school type and affiliation are all retained in the page address, so a filtered view can be bookmarked or shared.
Private career schools
We use HECC’s licensed-school directories to find providers, then review official school pages and catalogs. School licensure, accreditation, eligibility for financial aid and an individual’s professional certification are distinct. A directory listing does not establish an open seat or our endorsement. Beauty specializations have different scopes and preparation routes.
Independence and corrections
Education, Then What? is an independent Oregon education business. No sponsor paid for placement in this collection. We do not represent the providers, school districts or public agencies cited here. Any future paid content must be identified where it appears, and payment must not determine conclusions or hide material limitations.
This is a manually maintained edition, not a live data feed. Check the official provider page before making application or enrollment decisions.