Beauty Schools with the Best Graduation Rates in San Francisco, CA Metro Area

WRITTEN BY Casey Lozier | EDITED BY Jessica Santina | UPDATED ON 05/28/2024

One of the first things to consider when selecting a beauty school in the San Francisco Bay Area is its graduation rate.

California beauty and wellness professionals must graduate from state-licensed beauty schools to work in the field. If your goal is to become a licensed cosmetologist, esthetician, or manicurist, you should enroll in a program where you are likely to succeed, and a school's graduation rate can indicate how well a school prepares its students for their careers.

Graduation rates may be high as a result of several factors, including:

Mentorship and guidance for better student support
Experienced and personable instructors for quality instruction and student engagement
Positive school culture
Strong financial aid services and policies that are responsive to students’ changing needs

We'll get into a few of those as we go through the San Francisco area beauty schools with the highest graduation rates.

Beauty Schools with the Best Graduation Rates in San Francisco, CA Metro Badge

San Francisco, CA Beauty Schools with the Best Graduation Rates

#1: JD Academy of Salon and Spa — Danville

90% grad rate

JD Academy of Salon and Spa prides itself on the high level of attention students receive from mentors and instructors. Students in the school's cosmetology and esthetics programs also benefit from small class sizes that enable personalized attention, the opportunity to take practice board exams, and marketing training provided in these disciplines.

#2: Hilltop Beauty School — Daly City

80% grad rate

Students at Hilltop have the option of taking their cosmetology classes in Spanish. The manicuring and instructor training programs are only offered in English.

In recent years, more than 70% of Hilltop graduates who take their California beauty licensing exams have passed on their first attempts, which indicates strong preparation during their programs. Students also cite the school's inclusive and family-like culture and quality instructors as reasons they love Hilltop.

#3: The Salon Professional Academy — San Jose

79% grad rate

The Salon Professional Academy-San Jose points to its artistic culture as a top reason students love it. In fact, artistry is woven into all instruction, which is attractive to students who are drawn to the creative side of the beauty industry.

You can study cosmetology or esthetics at the Salon Professional Academy-San Jose.

#4: International College of Cosmetology — Oakland

78% grad rate

The International College of Cosmetology (ICC) attributes its success to quality instruction. You can study cosmetology, esthetics, or manicuring at ICC.

The school emphasizes skill-building in its classes, so students who want to focus on their technical skills may prefer this program.

ICC's website boasts its courses' strong alignment with the California licensing exam content. In fact, in 2022 (the most recent data available), 100% of ICC cosmetology students who took their exams in English passed, as did 100% of students who took their exams in Vietnamese. Graduates of ICC's esthetics and manicuring programs also performed above average on their licensing exams.

#5: Cinta Aveda Institute — San Francisco

71% grad rate

At Cinta Aveda Institute, you can enroll in a cosmetology, esthetics, advanced esthetics, or barbering degree program. The makeup artistry program, which trains students in advanced makeup techniques, sets Cinta Aveda Institute apart from other schools on the list.

Graduates also have automatic access to the extensive network of Aveda schools and salons as potential sources of employment.

Cinta Aveda Institute's traditional cosmetology, barbering, and esthetics programs adhere to state standards and prepare students for licensing exams. Students also get training in using and selling natural beauty products as well. Since the school's origin is the Aveda line of natural products, its culture is best suited for those passionate about using such products.

#6: Paul Mitchell The School East Bay — Pleasant Hill

53% grad rate

More San Francisco-Area Beauty School Rankings

Methodology and Editor’s Notes

We compared educational institutions from the Beauty Schools Directory database of beauty programs across the U.S. Those analyzed for these rankings were educational institutions that:

Report into the U.S. Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS)—predominantly institutions with programmatic accreditation
Had 50 or more students over the course of 12 months as of 2022
Were not a vocational/technical high school, community college, or postsecondary school that mainly offered programs outside of beauty training. We also excluded institutions offering massage therapy programs exclusively. These types of institutions were omitted for various reasons that make key data points difficult or irrelevant to compare apples to apples. We intended to compare standalone beauty schools or schools that mainly train beauty students.
For this ranking, “graduation rate within 150% of normal completion time of the program” was chosen as the variable, because beauty education caters to many nontraditional postsecondary students who often have life reasons that interfere with graduation within 100% of normal completion time. Institutions with such a graduation rate of less than 50% were omitted from the ranking.

Data was sourced from 2022, the latest available as of publication date.