Business/Commerce at Brigham Young University-Hawaii

A debt-to-earnings ratio of 0.57 suggests manageable repayment for this business degree, though the figures come with meaningful caveats. Peer business programs nationally produce median first-year earnings around $47,500 with typical debt near $27,000—numbers that would allow graduates to handle loan payments on entry-level salaries. However, Hawaii's cost of living is roughly 80% higher than the national average, which means the same salary buys considerably less in Honolulu or even rural Oahu than it would on the mainland. That gap matters when you're managing both student loans and rent.

The bigger uncertainty is location-specific outcomes. With only two business programs in Hawaii and no reported graduate data from either, we're working entirely from national comparisons. Similar programs elsewhere suggest viable economics, but whether BYU-Hawaii's graduates stay in the islands (facing high living costs) or relocate to the mainland (where their earnings might stretch further but family ties pull them back) fundamentally changes the financial picture. The school's 38% admission rate and solid test scores indicate reasonable selectivity, but that doesn't tell us much about employment networks in Hawaii's relatively small business community.

If your child plans to build a career in Hawaii long-term, factor housing costs that could easily consume half their estimated salary. If mainland employment is the plan, these national benchmarks become more reliable guides to actual outcomes.