-50%
First-year retention
First-year retention at Western Area Career & Technology Center fell 50% between 2023 and 2024 (100.0% → 50.0%).
Pennsylvania · Public · Predominantly certificates
Western Area Career & Technology Center
Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. 39 undergraduate students. 4 programs in the federal Field-of-Study dataset.
ANOMALY ENGINE · NOTABLE SIGNALS
What the data flags at Western Area Career & Technology Center
Short-arc shifts (recent 3-year window), peer outliers, earnings trend breaks, completion drops, enrollment cliffs, and debt-to-earnings warnings — surfaced deterministically from the federal record. Multi-decade shifts are reported separately in the Long Arc section, since 25-year tuition drift isn't really an anomaly.
-100%
3-year cohort default rate
3-year cohort default rate at Western Area Career & Technology Center fell 100% between 2021 and 2024 (2.6% → 0.0%).
+28%
Undergraduate enrollment
Undergraduate enrollment at Western Area Career & Technology Center rose 28% between 2006 and 2009 (60 → 77).
SECTION 01 · OUTCOMES SNAPSHOT
The numbers, vs. Pennsylvania
Each tile compares this institution to the Pennsylvania median for the same metric. Sub-line shows the comparison value, not an interpretation. Sparklines trace the federally available history.
$43,189+2% · 6→10y
Pennsylvania median $49,859$42,272
Treasury earnings · 6y post-entry—+10% · '97→'09
Pennsylvania median 66.1%$15,817+360% · '97→'19
At program completion39+114% · '96→'09
latest IPEDS100.0%-38% · '04→'24
first-time, full-time—+42% · '01→'20
latest cohort—
annualSECTION 02 · EARNINGS HORIZONS
How earnings spread, 4 to 10 years after entry
Treasury tax-record earnings for federally aided students who first enrolled at this institution. Each point is a horizon from the most-recent vintage. Single median per horizon (no p25/p75 publishing).
Earnings widen with time post-entry. Selection: federal-aid recipients only — not all graduates.Methodology →
SECTION 03 · DEBT-TO-EARNINGS
What loans cost relative to earnings
Annual debt service as a share of median earnings 10 years after entry, computed under federal Direct loan terms (10-year fixed at 6%). The 8% line is the gainful-employment threshold from federal regulation; above 12% has historically been considered “failing” under prior rule cycles.
Institution-wide
4.9%Median federal debt $15,817 amortized over 10 years vs. median earnings $43,189 (10y after entry).
SECTION 04 · LONG ARC
Ten-plus year arc
Federally available history. Coverage varies by metric — IPEDS publishes some series only after 2009 and others only before.
Undergraduate enrollment.
150%-time completion rate.
Median federal student debt at exit.
-38%
Western Area Career & Technology Center · retention fell
80.0% → 50.0%
+21%
Western Area Career & Technology Center · undergrad enrollment rose
36 → 77
+360%
Western Area Career & Technology Center · median debt rose
$3,586 → $16,500
-100%
Western Area Career & Technology Center · cohort default rate fell
15.7% → 0.0%
+22%
Western Area Career & Technology Center · pell share rose
65.1% → 79.5%
+26%
Western Area Career & Technology Center · earnings_median_8yr rose
$37,800 → $47,682
FINANCIAL OUTCOME · ILLUSTRATION
Estimate the financial outcome at Western Area Career & Technology Center
Pick a program. Cost from Scorecard net price by family income; earnings from Treasury 5-year-post-completion median, projected forward with a Mincer age-earnings curve. The selection-bias toggle applies the Dale-Krueger shrinkage. Outcomes illustration, not a forecast — see methodology.
Shrinks the earnings premium toward the matched-applicant mean. STEM <15%, business ~40%, arts & education ~60%.
EARNINGS SUPPRESSED
Federal privacy rules suppressed earnings for Practical Nursing, Vocational Nursing and Nursing Assistants · Undergraduate Certificate or Diploma at Western Area Career & Technology Center(cohort below 30 students). The calculator can’t produce a number we’d stand behind, so we don’t.
Outcomes illustration · not a forecast. Projects observed Scorecard earnings forward with a Mincer age-earnings curve under your assumptions. See methodology for the math.
SECTION 07 · SIMILAR INSTITUTIONS
Same sector and degree mix in Pennsylvania
Picked by Carnegie sector × predominant credential level. These are not rankings — just nearest-neighbour surfaces for comparison.
CAUSAL DISCIPLINE
“Western Area Career & Technology Center graduates earn $X” — not “Western Area Career & Technology Center makes you earn $X”
Median earnings describe what cohorts earned. They do not describe what attending Western Area Career & Technology Center caused. Selection effects (who admits, who enrolls, who completes) are real. We publish federal data with strict descriptive phrasing — and link the methodology where you can read about the limitations directly.