DENTAL ASSISTANT SCHOOLS IN CONNECTICUT — Federal Data, September 2026
Dental Assistant Schools in Connecticut, Ranked On What Graduates Owe And Earn
4 accredited institutions in Connecticut report enough federal data on this program to be compared. They are ranked here on a single measure: how many months of gross pay it takes a graduate to cover the median debt.
See The RankingU.S. Department of Education data. No school paid to be listed.
Across the 4 ranked programs in Connecticut, the median graduate needs 4.7 months of gross pay to cover a median federal debt of $10,486, against median earnings of $28,566 one year after completion.
That is slower than the national median of 4.6 months for this field, measured across the 398 institutions in our national dental assistant schools ranking. The best performer in the state is Porter & Chester Institute of Hamden in Hamden, at 4.0 months.
Every figure on this page is recalculated on Connecticut institutions only. Nothing is carried over from the national page.
At A Glance
What the federal data says about dental assistant schools in Connecticut
The Ranking
4 dental assistant schools in Connecticut, ranked by months of gross pay to cover the debt
Lower is better.
| # | School | Type | Award | Months | Debt | Earnings | Completion |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Porter & Chester Institute of HamdenHamden, CT | for-profit | Certificate | 4.0 | $9,500 | $28,583 | 32% |
| 2 | Porter & Chester InstituteBridgeport, CT | for-profit | Certificate | 4.0 | $9,500 | $28,549 | 45% |
| 3 | American Institute-West HartfordWest Hartford, CT | for-profit | Certificate | 5.4 | $11,471 | $25,355 | 56% |
| 4 | Goodwin UniversityEast Hartford, CT | nonprofit | Associate | 6.9 | $33,500 | $58,397 | 58% |
Source: U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard, Most Recent Cohorts by Field of Study and by Institution (published 9 June 2026). Debt is the median federal Stafford and Grad PLUS loan debt of completers in this program; earnings are median earnings one year after completion. Where a school offers the program at both certificate and associate level, the shorter payback is shown. Completion is the institution’s published rate, not the program’s.
The Top Five, In Detail
The five fastest payback programs in Connecticut, one by one
Porter & Chester Institute of Hamden
Hamden, CT
Porter & Chester Institute of Hamden is a private for-profit institution in Hamden. Its dental assisting graduates leave with a median federal debt of $9,500 and report median earnings of $28,583 a year after completing, so the debt is covered by 4.0 months of gross pay: the fastest payback in the state, and 0.7 months faster than the Connecticut state median of 4.7. The award measured here is a certificate. The institution reports a 32% completion rate.
Porter & Chester Institute
Bridgeport, CT
Porter & Chester Institute is a private for-profit institution in Bridgeport. Its dental assisting graduates leave with a median federal debt of $9,500 and report median earnings of $28,549 a year after completing, so the debt is covered by 4.0 months of gross pay: the second fastest in the state, and 0.7 months faster than the Connecticut state median of 4.7. The award measured here is a certificate. The institution reports a 45% completion rate.
American Institute-West Hartford
West Hartford, CT
American Institute-West Hartford is a private for-profit institution in West Hartford. Its dental assisting graduates leave with a median federal debt of $11,471 and report median earnings of $25,355 a year after completing, so the debt is covered by 5.4 months of gross pay: the third fastest in the state, and 0.7 months slower than the Connecticut state median of 4.7. The award measured here is a certificate. The institution reports a 56% completion rate.
Goodwin University
East Hartford, CT
Goodwin University is a private nonprofit institution in East Hartford. Its dental assisting graduates leave with a median federal debt of $33,500 and report median earnings of $58,397 a year after completing, so the debt is covered by 6.9 months of gross pay: fourth in the state, and 2.2 months slower than the Connecticut state median of 4.7. The award measured here is an associate degree. The institution reports a 58% completion rate.
Read It Carefully
What this ranking does not measure
With only 4 institutions publishable here, this page is a short list by construction. It is not a directory of every school in Connecticut: many programs, especially at institutions that do not take federal student aid, never appear in this data at all.
Absence from this page is not a verdict. The Department of Education suppresses figures for programs with small cohorts, so a small, excellent school will often have no publishable data at all. Schools that enroll no students on federal aid are outside this dataset entirely.
The measure is a ratio, not a repayment plan, and it counts federal loan debt only. Cash payments, private loans and employer sponsorship are invisible here. Local wages shape earnings as much as the school does, which is exactly why comparing inside one state, as this page does, is more informative than comparing across the country.
Other States
The same program, another state
Other Programs in Connecticut
Comparing a different trade in Connecticut
For CONNECTICUT School Operators
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