Criminal Justice and Corrections at Cedarville University

Similar criminal justice programs in Ohio typically produce first-year earnings around $36,600, which puts this degree right at the state median but well below top-performing programs like Herzing University-Akron ($67,000) or Tiffin University ($44,800). With an estimated $27,000 in debt—close to the $26,000 Ohio median—the debt-to-earnings ratio of 0.74 looks reasonable on paper. However, these estimates mask an important reality: we don't have actual outcome data for Cedarville's graduates because the sample size was too small to report.

The challenge here is that criminal justice careers often require additional credentials or experience before reaching competitive salaries, and that $36,600 starting point translates to roughly $3,050 monthly before taxes. With estimated loan payments around $300 monthly on a standard plan, your child would have limited financial flexibility early on. The gap between Cedarville's estimated outcomes and Ohio's top performers is substantial—nearly $10,000 annually compared to several in-state alternatives.

Given the lack of program-specific data and the significant variation in outcomes across Ohio's 46 criminal justice programs, you're making this decision somewhat blind. If your child is committed to this field at Cedarville specifically, understand that the financial picture depends heavily on career trajectory—law enforcement, corrections, and related fields have different earning potentials. Otherwise, programs with proven track records and transparent outcomes data would reduce the guesswork considerably.