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Amarillo, Texas Colleges

Learn the basics about colleges in Amarillo, Texas and what opportunities could be afforded recent graduates through the local economy.

Looking for accredited career colleges, technical schools, and universities in Amarillo, Texas. Each degree from a Amarillo, Texas Career College, a post-secondary for-profit institution, offers an education with an in-demand career field.

At career colleges in Texas, you typically don't take general education classes in core subjects such as English and math. Instead, you focus on career-related courses.

Texas Area Career and Technical Training Programs:

Amarillo, Texas Colleges and Careers

The city of Amarillo, Texas, takes its name from the Spanish word for "yellow," due to the golden prairie grass common in the area. This Great Plains city of about 247,000 people is a great location to pursue higher education, as a thriving local economy might have graduates of Amarillo colleges seeing more green than yellow.

Amarillo colleges

Despite its name, West Texas A&M University is the northernmost senior institution of higher learning in the state, and is located just south of Amarillo proper, in the community of Canyon. It boasts 61 undergraduate degree programs, and popular majors include agriculture, business, music and nursing. A fifth of the student population of about 7,900 is Hispanic, and an additional 3 percent are international. The campus occupies 176 acres, and its 2011-12 tuition and fees ran to $6,482 for in-state students and $15,872 for out-of-state students. This is less than the Texas average for public universities, which according to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating board will have average tuition and fees of $7,360 (in-state) and $17,659 (out-of-state) for 2012-13. Amarillo is also home to a campus of Wayland Baptist University, which is based in nearby Plainview. Tuition and fees at this private, Christian college ran to $13,940 in 2011-12. Also located in the city, Amarillo College is a large community college that enrolled more than 11,600 students as of 2010, and the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center offers degrees related to the medical field, such as the bachelor's of science in clinical laboratory science.

Amarillo economy

The Amarillo Economic Development Corporation identifies five primary local industries: aviation/aerospace, business/financial services, manufacturing, transportation/logistics and food technologies. The city is also a health care hub for the region. Major local employers include Bell Helicopter, Tradewind Turbines, insurance company VALIC/National Western Life, industrial plastic coatings maker SciCron Technologies, Americold Logistics and poultry producer Tyson. The 2011 mean annual wage in Amarillo was $38,780, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, although this number was significantly higher in some of the city's target industries. For example, the BLS-reported 2011 mean annual wage for business/financial occupations was $67,390. The total wage and salary employment in Amarillo has increased by more than 30 percent in the past 15 years, according to the city's EDC.

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