Fire Protection at CUNY Graduate School and University Center

The wide gap between national and New York benchmarks tells you something crucial about this field: fire protection careers pay vastly different amounts depending on where you work. The state's only program with reported data—at CUNY John Jay—shows graduates earning $48,121, nearly $20,000 less than what comparable programs produce nationally. That's likely because many fire protection graduates stay local, where salaries reflect regional cost structures and union contracts.

With estimated debt around $22,700, this program would be manageable either way—that's a debt-to-earnings ratio under 0.35 even using the lower New York figure. The real question is whether your child plans to pursue fire protection opportunities outside the state. If they're committed to working in New York's fire service system, their actual earnings will likely align more closely with the John Jay figure, not the national median. If they're open to relocating or working in private-sector fire protection (which tends to pay more), the economics improve significantly.

The challenge here is that CUNY Graduate School doesn't have its own graduate outcomes to report, making it impossible to know whether this particular program opens doors beyond what John Jay offers. Given that uncertainty and the local salary reality, treating the New York benchmark as your planning baseline makes more financial sense than banking on national figures.