Where our data comes from
Every listing in this directory comes from a public record, and each school page links to the record it came from. We do not rate schools or take payment from them.
The directory holds 1,535 program entries at 989 schools, plus 292 registered apprenticeship sponsors. 131 schools have an HVAC program accredited by HVAC Excellence or PAHRA, and 232 have graduate earnings reported by the U.S. Department of Education.
Schools and programs
- NCES IPEDS Completions (2023-24, and 2022-23 for schools missing from the newer file). A school is listed when it reported conferring at least one award in HVAC and refrigeration maintenance technology (CIP code 47.0201). Source: nces.ed.gov/ipeds.
- NCES IPEDS Institutional Characteristics, 2024 directory. School name, address, phone, website. Schools no longer marked active are dropped.
- NCES IPEDS 2023-24 price data. Program-level tuition, fees, books and length are available for schools that report by program (mostly short career schools). For other schools we show nothing, or the school-wide in-state undergraduate tuition clearly labelled as school-wide.
- CareerOneStop Local Training Finder (U.S. Department of Labor). Adds training providers that the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) eligible-provider system lists but that were not in the IPEDS files.
- College Scorecard field-of-study data (U.S. Department of Education). Adds schools that report federal-aid students in an HVAC program (CIP 47.02) but had no HVAC awards in the IPEDS files. Source: collegescorecard.ed.gov/data.
Accreditation
- Program accreditation. The badge on a school page comes from the accreditors' own public lists: HVAC Excellence accredited programs (99 schools here) and PAHRA accredited schools (38 schools here). We match each entry to a school by name, address and campus. A school with several accredited campuses shows each location.
- School accreditor. The regional or national accreditor of the whole school comes from the College Scorecard institution file (accreditor data from the Department of Education's PEPS system as of August 2024) and appears for 738 schools.
Graduate earnings and debt
Earnings and loan debt come from the College Scorecard field-of-study file for HVAC (CIP 47.02), by credential level. Earnings are the median for graduates who received federal student aid, were working and were not enrolled one year after finishing; they cover 2018-19 and 2019-20 completers measured in 2020 and 2021, in 2022 dollars. Debt is the median federal loan debt (Stafford loans) taken at the school by those completers. The Department suppresses values for small programs, so earnings appear for 232 schools and debt for 178. We show only reported values and never estimate the rest. The school page also shows the school-wide completion rate from the Scorecard institution file, which covers all programs at the school.
Apprenticeships
Apprenticeship listings come from the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Apprenticeship partner sponsor list. We include joint apprenticeship and training committees, associations and training schools whose names show an HVAC, refrigeration, sheet metal, pipefitting or steamfitting, or PHCC program, and the two apprenticeship programs on HVAC Excellence's list. Each listing is labelled with its trade. We publish the sponsor's name, address and website only. Contact names and emails stay out of the directory.
What this data does not tell you
- Timing. Federal data is published after the fact: the newest award counts are for 2023-24, and earnings cover completers from 2018 to 2020. Confirm start dates and current offerings with the school.
- Job placement. No national source publishes HVAC placement rates, so we do not show one. Ask each school for its placement figures.
- Employer apprenticeships. Individual employers that sponsor their own HVAC apprentices are not listed. Search those openings on Apprenticeship.gov.
Corrections
If you run a school or an apprenticeship program and see an error, use the correction page.
Built from NCES IPEDS 2023-24 and 2022-23 completions, the IPEDS 2024 institution directory, IPEDS 2023-24 price data, the CareerOneStop Local Training Finder, College Scorecard field-of-study data, HVAC Excellence and PAHRA accredited-program lists, and U.S. Department of Labor apprenticeship sponsor records.