Best Auto Body and Collision Repair Schools for 2027
59 ASE accredited collision repair programs at 59 schools, ranked for 2027 on cost, graduate earnings, completion and track record. Tulsa Technology Center (Tulsa, OK) is first.
By Trevor Rupe, Contributor at Savo Media Group Updated
At a Glance
59 programs hold ASE Education Foundation accreditation in the Collision Repair and Refinishing area and meet the federal entry bar.
The median program charges about $4,960 a year in tuition and fees; Cypress College is lowest at $1,150 a year, in-state.
The median graduation rate is 49%, counted for the whole school.
BLS reports a May 2025 median of $54,890 for automotive body and related repairers (SOC 49-3021).
The score is the same for all auto body schools on the site, so a 70 here means what a 70 means on any other list.
The Top 10 Auto Body and Collision Repair Schools
These are the ten highest-scoring programs at the auto body schools in the ranking. The 25 highest-scoring programs of 59. Each score is out of 100 and comes from the method below.
Rank 1
Collision Repair
Tulsa Technology Center
Tulsa, OK
Score74.5
ASE Accredited Program
Public
Collision Repair, 6 months
Cost
$2,040for the 6-month program (scored as $4,080 a year)
Graduation rate
81%within 150% of normal time
Graduate earnings
$50,928median four years after completing, certificate level; school-wide across its mechanic programs
Awards
63in 2024-25
Why it ranks here
Earns its place with a price toward the low end of ranked collision repair programs ($2,040 for the 6-month program), an 81% graduation rate and 63 awards in 2024-25, among the larger collision repair programs.
Source: school’s published price (2026-27, read November 3, 2026), IPEDS 2024-25 (provisional), College Scorecard and the ASE accreditation list.
Rank 2
Auto Collision Repair & Refinishing Technology
Fox Valley Technical College
Appleton, WI
Score73.3
ASE Accredited Program
Public
Associate Degree (AAS), 63 credit hours
Cost
$5,040a year, in-state
Graduation rate
65%within 150% of normal time
Graduate earnings
$62,822median four years after completing, certificate level; school-wide across its mechanic programs
Awards
10in 2024-25
Why it ranks here
Scores well on a price toward the low end of ranked collision repair programs ($5,040 a year, in-state), graduates earning a median $62,822 and a 65% graduation rate.
Source: IPEDS 2024-25 (provisional), College Scorecard and the ASE accreditation list.
Rank 3
Collision Repair Technology
Tennessee College of Applied Technology-Knoxville
Knoxville, TN
Score72.8
ASE Accredited Program
Public
Collision Repair and Refinishing Technician
Cost
$4,623for the 12-month program (scored as $4,623 a year)
Graduation rate
71%within 150% of normal time
Graduate earnings
$56,468median four years after completing, certificate level; school-wide across its mechanic programs
Awards
33in 2024-25
Why it ranks here
Stands out for a price toward the low end of ranked collision repair programs ($4,623 for the 12-month program), graduates earning a median $56,468 and a 71% graduation rate.
Source: IPEDS 2024-25 (provisional) and the ASE accreditation list.
Rank 5
Auto Collision & Management Technology
Texas State Technical College
Waco, TX
Score69.6
ASE Accredited Program
Public
Auto Collision & Management Technology - Repair Specialization
Cost
$7,212a year, in-state
Graduation rate
46%within 150% of normal time
Graduate earnings
$63,228median four years after completing, associate’s level; school-wide across its mechanic programs
Awards
43in 2024-25
Why it ranks here
Scores well on graduates earning a median $63,228 and 43 awards in 2024-25, among the larger collision repair programs. Its figures cover its accredited sites in Harlingen, TX; Waco, TX.
Graduate earnings: four years after finishing, associate’s level; school-wide, covering its mechanic programs
Source: IPEDS 2024-25 (provisional) and the ASE accreditation list.
Rank 8
Auto Collision Technology
Metropolitan Community College Area
Omaha, NE
Score66.3
ASE Accredited Program
Public
Certificate of Achievement
Cost
$3,375a year, in-state
Graduation rate
29%within 150% of normal time
Graduate earnings
$52,060median one year after completing, certificate level; school-wide across its mechanic programs
Awards
60in 2024-25
Why it ranks here
Scores well on a price toward the low end of ranked collision repair programs ($3,375 a year, in-state), graduates earning a median $52,060 and 60 awards in 2024-25, among the larger collision repair programs.
Graduate earnings: one year after finishing, certificate level; school-wide, covering its mechanic 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 Collision Repair and Refinishing 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.
Collision Repair and Refinishing 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 Collision Repair and Refinishing 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, every ranked program at these auto body schools 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 B-series covers Painting and Refinishing (B2), Non-Structural Analysis and Damage Repair (B3), Structural Analysis and Damage Repair (B4) and Mechanical and Electrical Components (B5), and technicians certified in B2 through B5 are recognized as Master Collision Repair Technicians. Technicians retest every five years to keep a certification.
What the Numbers Show About Collision Repair Programs
The list covers 59 collision repair programs at 59 schools in 29 states and territories. The median school graduates 49% of its first-time, full-time students, counted over one and a half times the normal program length. The median program charges about $4,960 a year in tuition and fees, from $1,150 a year, in-state at Cypress College (Cypress, CA) to $47,650 for the 13-month program at Universal Technical Institute-Southern California (Long Beach, CA).
22 of the 59 programs award associate’s degrees, and the rest award certificates. 51 are at public institutions and 6 at private for-profit schools. The states with the most ranked programs are Oklahoma (10), Florida (8) and Minnesota (3).
How to Choose Auto Body Schools
Among auto body schools, the first check is accreditation: the ASE Education Foundation accredits Collision Repair and Refinishing programs, not whole colleges. Every program on this list holds it, so what is left to compare at auto body schools is price, completion and graduate earnings.
Some colleges charge by the year, and others price the whole program and show its length. The card prints each price with its unit, so read it before you compare auto body schools with each other.
The graduation rate on a card is the whole school’s, and graduate earnings are a College Scorecard median for mechanic and repair graduates. Together they show how many students at these auto body schools finish and what graduates earn.
Auto body schools are one route into collision repair; the career guide covers the others, including how ASE credits a completed program.
Questions About Auto Body and Collision Repair Schools
How are the best auto body and collision repair 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 collision repair school cost?
Among the 59 programs on this list, the median reports about $4,960 a year in tuition and fees for 2024-25, from $1,150 a year, in-state at Cypress College in Cypress, CA to $47,650 for the 13-month program at Universal Technical Institute-Southern California in Long Beach, CA. 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 collision repair technicians earn?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a median of $54,890 a year for automotive body and related repairers (SOC 49-3021) in its May 2025 estimates, with the lowest-paid tenth earning under $36,910 and the highest-paid tenth over $87,940. Pay depends on the state, the employer and the work; each state ranking on this site shows the state’s median.
How do I choose among auto body schools?
Look for ASE Education Foundation accreditation in Collision Repair and Refinishing, which every program here holds. Then compare auto body schools on the price with its unit, the graduation rate and the graduate earnings on each card.
Are auto body schools and collision repair schools the same?
For this ranking, yes: the programs at these auto body schools are the ones the ASE Education Foundation accredits in Collision Repair and Refinishing.
Sources for Auto Body and Collision Repair 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.
