Enrolling at Maiquela’s Cosmetology Academy in South Gate starts with a phone call or a campus visit — no application fee to ask questions. Tuition depends on which program you choose, and payment plan options are available. Call (323) 587-1750 for figures that reflect your program and schedule.
Beauty school is a real financial decision, and this page exists because most schools make it hard to get a straight answer about cost until you are sitting in an enrolment meeting. That is not how we want to do it.
We do not publish tuition figures on this website, for one honest reason: a number on a page goes stale, and a stale number is worse than no number. What we will do is tell you on the phone, in Spanish, what your program actually costs, what the kit costs, what the state charges separately, and what a payment plan looks like — before you visit, if you want.
What follows is everything that determines that figure, plus the questions worth asking any beauty school in Los Angeles County before you sign anything. Including us.
¿Es Para Usted?
Questions to ask before you enrol anywhere
These are the questions that separate schools that are straight with you from schools that are not. Ask them here and ask them everywhere else you are considering.
- What is the total cost — tuition, kit, books and state fees itemised separately?
- What exactly is in the kit, and what will I need to replace during the program?
- What happens to my money and my hours if I have to stop partway through?
- What is the attendance policy, and how are missed hours made up?
- Is the enrolment agreement available in Spanish, and will someone read it through with me?
- How many hours does this program require, and how many months will that realistically take on my schedule?
- Are books included, and are they available in the language I want to study in?
- What help is there with the state application and booking the examination?
Requisitos
Who is eligible to enrol?
Before cost comes eligibility, and this is where a lot of people rule themselves out unnecessarily. These are the rules the State of California actually sets.
- Completion of the 10th grade. California does not require a high school diploma or a GED to sit the licensing examination. Tenth-grade completion is the state education minimum.
- Age 17 by the time you apply for the state examination. You may begin training before then.
- An ITIN is accepted in place of a Social Security Number on California professional licence applications.
- Previous hours may transfer from another California school. Bring your documentation and ask.
These are the state minimums, not a school policy. Every school sets its own admission rules on top of them, and some require a diploma or GED regardless. Call (323) 587-1750 to confirm what applies here, and verify the state rules with the California Board of Barbering and Cosmetology directly.
Plan de Estudios
What goes into the total cost
- Tuition
- The instructional cost, driven primarily by program length. A 400-hour manicurist program and a 1,000-hour cosmetology program are not close to each other in price.
- Kit and tools
- Program-specific. A barber kit is dominated by clippers and shears; a nail kit by product, brushes and an e-file; an esthetics kit by skincare and disposables. Itemised in writing before you enrol.
- Textbooks
- Available in Spanish or English. Which you choose does not change tuition, but decide before books are ordered.
- Consumable product
- Colour, lightener, acrylic, skincare and disposables get used up in practice. The more you practise, the more you use — worth building into a budget rather than discovering.
- State application and examination fees
- Paid to the California Board of Barbering and Cosmetology, not to the school. Set by the state and subject to change independently of tuition.
- Getting there
- Fuel and parking, or bus fare. Over a 1,000-hour program this is a real line item, and it is the one students most often forget.
El Proceso
How enrolment works, step by step
Call and ask
Call (323) 587-1750. Ask about cost, schedule, program length — anything. Nothing is owed for a phone call and nobody will pressure you on it.
Visit the campus
Come to 8511 Long Beach Blvd and see the classrooms and clinic floor for yourself. Bring the question list above. A school that dislikes those questions has told you something useful.
Choose your program
We will be honest about which licence fits your goal and your available hours, including when a shorter program is the better starting point.
Review the agreement in Spanish
The enrolment agreement is read through with you, in Spanish, in full, before signature. Cost, schedule, attendance policy and what happens if you withdraw are all in it. Take it home and read it again if you want to.
Set up your payment plan
Ask about available payment plan options and settle the schedule before you start, not after.
Get your kit and start
Kit list in hand, schedule confirmed, first class booked.
Why we do not publish tuition prices online
A published price is right until it is not, and a page that is six months out of date does more damage than a phone number. Beyond that, the honest total depends on the program, the schedule you can keep, and what tools you already own.
What we will not do is make you visit in person to find out. Call (323) 587-1750 and ask for the figure. If a school will not give you one over the phone, that itself is information.
Financial aid: what we can and cannot say
Federal student aid under Title IV is available only at institutions that participate in those programs, and eligibility is set by the U.S. Department of Education rather than by any school’s preference. Ask any school you are considering, directly, whether they participate — and get the answer before you enrol, not after.
Separately, workforce development funding is administered through county and state agencies rather than through schools, and eligibility depends on your own circumstances. Los Angeles County America’s Job Center of California offices are the place to ask about that. For what is available here specifically, call us and ask; we will tell you plainly what applies and what does not.
What happens if life gets in the way
People stop and restart beauty school. A parent gets sick, a job schedule changes, childcare falls through. It is common and it is worth understanding the policy before it happens rather than during a crisis.
Ask specifically: how are missed hours made up, what happens to money already paid, and what is the process for returning. Get the answer in writing, in the enrolment agreement, in the language you read most comfortably. That applies to every school, not just this one.
Costo
The variables that move your total
If you want a single number, call us. If you want to understand where the number comes from, this is it.
Program choice
The dominant factor. Manicurist 400 hours, esthetician 600, cosmetology and barbering 1,000 each.
Schedule intensity
Attending more hours per week shortens the program, which reduces total ancillary cost — transport, childcare, time out of work.
What you already own
If you have been doing hair or nails informally, some of your tools may be usable. Bring them and an instructor will tell you.
Practice volume
More practice means more product consumed. It is also how you get good, so it is a cost worth paying.
State fees
Application and examination fees are set by the California Board of Barbering and Cosmetology, entirely outside the school.
Attendance consistency
Stopping and restarting is the most expensive way through any program. Steady attendance is the cheapest.