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Tracer education requirements

Updated January 8, 2025
4 min read

There are several educational requirements to become a tracer. Tracers usually study business, elementary education, or psychology. 44% of tracers hold a bachelor's degree, and 15% hold an high school diploma. We analyzed 223 real tracer resumes to see exactly what tracer education sections show.

The most common colleges for tracers are the University of Phoenix and the University of Phoenix.

There are also many online tracer courses to help get the education required to be a tracer.

What education do you need to become a tracer?

What degree do you need to be a tracer?

The most common degree for tracers is bachelor's degree, with 44% of tracers earning that degree. The second and third most common degree levels are high school diploma degree at 15% and high school diploma degree at 14%.
  • Bachelor's, 44%
  • High School Diploma, 15%
  • Associate, 14%
  • Master's, 12%
  • Other Degrees, 15%

What should I major in to become a tracer?

You should major in business to become a tracer. 24% of tracers major in business. Other common majors for a tracer include elementary education and psychology.

Most common colleges for tracers

Tracers often get their degrees at University of Phoenix, Texas A&M; University, and Shepherd University. Here are the most common colleges for tracers in the US based on their resumes.
Tracer common collegePercentages
University of Phoenix11.43%
Texas A&M University8.57%
Shepherd University8.57%
Montana State University - Bozeman5.71%
Mercy College5.71%

Best majors for tracers

RankMajorPercentages
1Business23.9%
2Elementary Education7.0%
3Psychology5.6%
4History5.6%
5Education5.6%

Best colleges for tracers

The best colleges for tracers are Stanford University, Northwestern University, and New York University.

A tracer with advanced education typically earns a higher salary and has access to better jobs. That's why Zippia looked into the best colleges for tracers. We based this list on several metrics: admissions rate, retention rate, mean earnings of graduates, the ratio of working vs. non-working students ten years after admission, the average cost of attendance, and median debt for graduates who become tracers.

1. New York University

New York, NY • Private

In-state tuition

$51,828

Enrollment

26,339

2. Stanford University

Stanford, CA • Private

In-state tuition

$51,354

Enrollment

7,083

3. University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, PA • Private

In-state tuition

$55,584

Enrollment

10,764

4. Northwestern University

Evanston, IL • Private

In-state tuition

$54,568

Enrollment

8,451

5. SUNY College of Technology at Canton

Canton, NY • Private

In-state tuition

$8,389

Enrollment

3,127

6. University of Alaska Anchorage

Anchorage, AK • Private

In-state tuition

$8,580

Enrollment

10,482

7. University of Southern California

Los Angeles, CA • Private

In-state tuition

$56,225

Enrollment

19,548

8. Maine Maritime Academy

Castine, ME • Private

In-state tuition

$13,478

Enrollment

979

9. California State University - Bakersfield

Bakersfield, CA • Private

In-state tuition

$7,309

Enrollment

9,142

10. SUNY at Binghamton

Vestal, NY • Private

In-state tuition

$9,808

Enrollment

13,990

20 best online courses for tracers

Advertising disclosure

1. Static Routing Configuration Using Packet Tracer

coursera

In this 2-hour long project-based course, you will learn how to Design, Create and Configure Network topologies using Packet Tracer. You will learn to perform or configure Static Routing using Packet Tracer. You will get an introduction to packet tracer and different components available in packet tracer. You will create basic network topology and will identify the importance of the default gateway. Next, you will learn to perform static routing between 3 routers. You will learn to configure...

2. Program Automation of devices using Packet Tracer

coursera

In this 1-hour long project-based course, you will learn how to build and configure smart home devices using Packet Tracer. In this project, you will get an introduction to the Packet Tracer and the different components available in Packet Tracer. You will learn to configure a basic topology where you will write a simple python program on the single board computer to turn the led on and off using a switch. You will learn to build a complex topology where you will program the SBC board to...

3. Data Entry Skills: A Complete Data Entry Course from Scratch

udemy
4.7
(533)

A Complete Guide to Data Entry Skills: Learn Data Entry Skills and become a Data Entry Pro & Get a Online Data Entry Job...

4. Data Entry Course for Beginners

udemy
4.6
(5,470)

Learn from a Successful Data Entry Professional!...

5. Framework for Data Collection and Analysis

coursera

This course will provide you with an overview over existing data products and a good understanding of the data collection landscape. With the help of various examples you will learn how to identify which data sources likely matches your research question, how to turn your research question into measurable pieces, and how to think about an analysis plan. Furthermore this course will provide you with a general framework that allows you to not only understand each step required for a successful...

6. Introduction to Data Engineering

coursera

Start your journey in one of the fastest growing professions today with this beginner-friendly Data Engineering course! You will be introduced to the core concepts, processes, and tools you need to know in order to get a foundational knowledge of data engineering. as well as the roles that Data Engineers, Data Scientists, and Data Analysts play in the ecosystem. You will begin this course by understanding what is data engineering as well as the roles that Data Engineers, Data Scientists, and...

7. Complete Data Entry Skills Course - Learn Data Entry Skills

udemy
4.4
(399)

Learn Essential Data Entry Skills Now To Enhance Your Career -Word - Excel - Database - Data Entry Jobs...

8. Data Engineering - ETL, Web Scraping ,Big Data,SQL,Power BI

udemy
4.2
(300)

Hands on Data Interaction using - ETL, Web Scraping ,Big Data,SQL,Power BI...

9. Data Governance Fundamentals

udemy
4.5
(6,831)

A framework for leveraging your data...

10. Data Engineering using AWS Data Analytics

udemy
4.6
(1,720)

Build Data Engineering Pipelines on AWS using Data Analytics Services - Glue, EMR, Athena, Kinesis, Lambda, Redshift...

11. 4x1 Data Management/Governance/Security/Ethics Masterclass

udemy
4.4
(533)

You'll learn about data literacy, Data Quality operations, Data Governance policies and Data Security/Privacy controls...

12. Data Governance - The Complete Course for Beginners

udemy
4.5
(2,304)

Make yourself standout in meetings about Data Governance. Learn everything that the experts know about Data Governance...

13. Data Science for Healthcare Claims Data

udemy
4.4
(489)

Learn and practice how to transform raw healthcare claims data into valuable knowledge and actionable insights!...

14. GCP - Google Cloud Professional Data Engineer Certification

udemy
4.5
(2,476)

Learn Google Cloud Professional Data Engineer Certification with 80+ Hands-on demo on storage, Database, ML GCP Services...

15. Data Science Bootcamp 2022: 5 Data Science Projects

udemy
4.5
(745)

Data Science and Machine Learning Masterclass with Python with 5 Data Science Real World Projects...

16. An Introduction to Machine Learning for Data Engineers

udemy
4.4
(3,291)

A Prerequisite for Tensorflow on Google's Cloud Platform for Data Engineers...

17. Master Data Engineering using GCP Data Analytics

udemy
4.5
(318)

Learn GCS for Data Lake, Big Query for Data Warehouse, GCP Dataproc and Databricks for Big Data Pipelines...

18. Azure Data Factory For Data Engineers - Project on Covid19

udemy
4.7
(10,460)

Real world project for Data Engineers using Azure Data Factory, SQL, Data Lake, Databricks, HDInsight, CI/CD [DP203]...

19. Fundamentals of Data Analysis for Big Data

udemy
4.5
(270)

This course prepares participants to begin running data analysis on databases...

20. Data Engineering Essentials using SQL, Python, and PySpark

udemy
4.4
(3,028)

Learn key Data Engineering Skills such as SQL, Python, Apache Spark (Spark SQL and Pyspark) with Exercises and Projects...

Top 10 most affordable universities for tracers

The most affordable schools for tracers are SUNY Farmingdale, california state university - bakersfield, and baruch college of the city university of new york.

If the best universities for tracers are out of your price range, check out these affordable schools. After factoring in in-state tuition and fees, the average cost of attendance, admissions rate, average net price, and mean earnings after six years, we found that these are the most affordable schools for tracers.

1. SUNY Farmingdale

Farmingdale, NY • Private

In-state tuition

$8,306

Cost of attendance

16,091

2. California State University - Bakersfield

Bakersfield, CA • Private

In-state tuition

$7,309

Cost of attendance

16,714

3. Baruch College of the City University of New York

New York, NY • Private

In-state tuition

$7,262

Cost of attendance

14,046

4. California State University - Dominguez Hills

Carson, CA • Private

In-state tuition

$6,942

Cost of attendance

14,469

5. Brooklyn College of the City University of New York

Brooklyn, NY • Private

In-state tuition

$7,240

Cost of attendance

13,991

6. SUNY Polytechnic Institute

Utica, NY • Private

In-state tuition

$8,238

Cost of attendance

21,567

7. Brigham Young University

Provo, UT • Private

In-state tuition

$5,620

Cost of attendance

18,136

8. USF Sarasota-Manatee

Sarasota, FL • Private

In-state tuition

$5,587

Cost of attendance

13,043

9. SUNY Stony Brook

Stony Brook, NY • Private

In-state tuition

$9,625

Cost of attendance

24,718

10. San Diego State University

San Diego, CA • Private

In-state tuition

$7,488

Cost of attendance

22,990

Top 10 hardest universities to get into for tracers

The hardest universities for tracers to get into are Stanford University, Northwestern University, and New York University.

Some great schools for tracers are hard to get into, but they also set your career up for greater success. The list below shows the most challenging universities to get into for tracers based on an institution's admissions rates, average SAT scores accepted, median ACT scores accepted, and mean earnings of students six years after admission.

1. Stanford University

Stanford, CA • Private

Admissions rate

4%

SAT average

1,497

2. Northwestern University

Evanston, IL • Private

Admissions rate

8%

SAT average

1,508

3. New York University

New York, NY • Private

Admissions rate

20%

SAT average

1,419

4. University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, PA • Private

Admissions rate

8%

SAT average

1,492

5. Boston University

Boston, MA • Private

Admissions rate

22%

SAT average

1,420

6. University of Southern California

Los Angeles, CA • Private

Admissions rate

13%

SAT average

1,445

7. Villanova University

Villanova, PA • Private

Admissions rate

29%

SAT average

1,407

8. SUNY at Binghamton

Vestal, NY • Private

Admissions rate

40%

SAT average

1,376

9. Bentley University

Waltham, MA • Private

Admissions rate

43%

SAT average

1,338

10. Brandeis University

Waltham, MA • Private

Admissions rate

31%

SAT average

1,398

Top 10 easy-to-apply-to universities for tracers

The easiest schools for tracers to get into are Oklahoma Wesleyan University, notre dame de namur university, and holy names university.

Some schools are much easier to get into. If you want to start your career as a tracer without much hassle, check out the list of schools where you will be accepted in no time. We compiled admissions rates, average SAT scores, average ACT scores, and average salary of students six years after graduation to uncover which were the easiest schools to get into for tracers.

1. Oklahoma Wesleyan University

Bartlesville, OK • Private

Admissions rate

68%

SAT average

964

2. Notre Dame de Namur University

Belmont, CA • Private

Admissions rate

82%

SAT average

983

3. Holy Names University

Oakland, CA • Private

Admissions rate

70%

SAT average

849

4. Notre Dame College

Cleveland, OH • Private

Admissions rate

90%

SAT average

994

5. LIM College

New York, NY • Private

Admissions rate

83%

SAT average

1,061

6. D'Youville College

Buffalo, NY • Private

Admissions rate

100%

SAT average

1,072

7. Nyack College

New York, NY • Private

Admissions rate

98%

SAT average

999

8. Presentation College

Aberdeen, SD • Private

Admissions rate

97%

SAT average

1,050

9. Oregon Institute of Technology

Klamath Falls, OR • Private

Admissions rate

96%

SAT average

1,139

10. Life University

Marietta, GA • Private

Admissions rate

94%

SAT average

979

Average tracer salary by education level

According to our data, tracers with a Associate degree earn the highest average salary, at $46,821 annually. Tracers with a Bachelor's degree earn an average annual salary of $46,467.
Tracer education levelTracer salary
High School Diploma or Less$42,397
Bachelor's Degree$46,467
Some College/ Associate Degree$46,821

Tracer education FAQs

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Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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