Liberal Arts and Sciences, General Studies and Humanities at Buena Vista University

A liberal arts degree from Buena Vista carries an estimated $27,000 in debt—right at both the national and Iowa medians for this credential—but the real question is what that buys you in the Iowa job market. Based on comparable programs across the state, first-year earnings around $40,400 track with what other Iowa liberal arts graduates report, putting this program near the median for in-state options. That 0.67 debt-to-earnings ratio suggests manageable repayment, though it's worth noting that several Iowa schools with reported data show their liberal arts graduates earning slightly more ($42,000-$44,000) with similar debt loads.

The uncertainty here matters: these figures come from other Iowa liberal arts programs, not Buena Vista's actual outcomes, because too few recent graduates participated in the data collection. What we can say is that Iowa liberal arts programs collectively perform at or slightly above the national benchmark ($36,340), and Buena Vista's nearly three-quarters admission rate and substantial Pell population suggest it serves a different student demographic than some higher-earning competitors. For families concerned about return on investment, the estimated numbers don't raise red flags—the debt is standard and the projected earnings are viable—but without school-specific data, you're betting that Buena Vista's outcomes mirror the state pattern rather than fall below it.