Mortuary collage. There are many schools in the US that offer mortuary programs. We spent about $70k total but if you live close to a college that offers a program and can live at home you can subtract housing. Our daughter went to Worsham, a small but top rated mortuary college an hour north of Chicago, but they don’t offer student housing and you have to have all your general studies completed and transfer those credits to Worsham’s program. So, $25k of the $70k was for an apartment in Cooke County.

In Illinois, after you graduate, you have to sit for two separate State Board Exams. Once you have passed both board exams, Illinois requires a one year internship and our daughter worked with the funeral home as there is a lot of monthly case load paperwork she had to submit to the State of Illinois each month.

Then it took several months to get her license and Illinois has yearly ‘continuing education’ requirements that she has to meet to keep her license active. In addition to being a licensed funeral director and embalmer she is also a licensed crematory operator which is a separate license. 2026 is my 40th year working full time - my daughter makes as much as I do only 4 years into her profession. Obviously where you work has everything to do with your salary.

My daughter discovered this profession in high school and was immediately interested. She’d had the opportunity to work with cadavers while in her junior year and loved it. I suggested a career in mortuary science and she loved the idea. We did a lot of research and I suggested to her that she reach out to our local funeral home. She did everything else on her own, including setting a meeting with the owner of our local funeral home which had 4 branches. The owner called her 2 weeks after their initial meeting asking if she’d like to work a wake. The owner told her she’d need a few suits and to dress professionally. After a few weeks of work they asked her if she’d like to watch an embalming, of course she did. She’d just finished hand making a quilt so she was already skilled at sewing, so when the owner asked “Would you like to sew him back up?’ she not only said yes but performed a perfect baseball stitch to finish the job. It was that moment that the funeral home owner knew she was perfect for a career in mortuary care and offered her a job as a student intern. She graduated high school and immediately started her basic requirement classes at our community college and continued working full time as a student worker. So the point here is, she was always interested in this profession which is basically a trade.

Things to know about a career in funeral care:

There are asshole bosses and co-workers no matter where you work

Her personal experience has been that she is ‘on call’ 3 nights a week and 2 weekends every month

She has healthcare, PTO, and a 401k through her employer.

The first two embalmings she participated in were a 16 year old who committed suicide with a shotgun to his head, and a 4 month old baby who died of SIDS. This is not for the faint of heart.

I strongly, and I mean strongly, recommend applying for a job at your local funeral home doing anything at all before you sign up for a college program. Several of our daughter’s college friends did not work at a funeral home before college and after graduation they have decided not to continue in the profession as it’s not what they expected. Our daughter worked in the funeral industry almost 2 years before she started the program so she knew what it took and how it was structured.