Fire Protection at CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice

John Jay's fire protection program sits in an unusual position: it ranks in just the 12th percentile nationally for earnings, but 60th percentile within New York. This isn't a contradiction—it reflects how New York's fire protection programs lag behind the rest of the country. Graduates here earn around $48,000 starting out, compared to a $67,000 national median. That's a significant gap that persists even four years into the career, with earnings barely budging to $50,000.

The program does have one clear advantage: manageable debt. At $16,500, students typically borrow about $6,000 less than the national average for this field, resulting in a debt-to-earnings ratio under 0.35. For John Jay's heavily Pell-eligible student population (59%), that relatively light debt load matters, especially given the program's strong public service orientation. The debt won't be overwhelming, but parents should understand that fire protection careers in New York appear to offer more modest financial returns than in most other states. If your child is committed to fire service specifically in New York, this is the more affordable of the two state options, but the earnings ceiling looks lower than what this degree typically delivers elsewhere.