Finance and Financial Management Services at Bethany College

When a school's graduate cohort is too small to report actual earnings—as is the case at Bethany College—we're left estimating from peer programs across Kansas. Those comparable finance programs suggest first-year earnings around $50,000, about $3,600 below the national median. That gap might not sound dramatic, but it's worth noting that Kansas's top-performing finance programs regularly produce graduates earning $55,000 to $59,000 in their first year, putting Bethany's estimated outcomes at the lower end of the state's range.

The estimated $25,800 in debt sits slightly above both state and national medians for finance bachelor's degrees, yielding a debt-to-earnings ratio of 0.52—manageable on paper, but less comfortable when you're actually making those loan payments on $50,000. For 43% of students here who receive Pell grants, that debt load represents a meaningful financial commitment, especially if actual outcomes fall short of these state-based estimates.

The practical challenge here is making a decision with incomplete information. Bethany's small program size might offer personalized attention, but without actual graduate outcomes to evaluate, you're essentially betting that this particular program performs like the Kansas average rather than trailing behind. If finance is the goal, looking at schools with transparent, reported data—where you can see exactly what their graduates earn—removes that uncertainty from an already expensive decision.