Computer and Information Sciences at Des Moines Area Community College

A $60,000 starting salary from a two-year degree sounds exceptional—and it is nationally, placing this program in the 95th percentile among similar programs. But before you get too excited, note the caveat: Iowa only has two schools reporting data for this associate's program, and this one has fewer than 30 graduates in the sample. That makes it hard to know if these outcomes are reliable or if you're seeing a few outliers who happened to land unusually strong positions.

What we can say with confidence: even at face value, the economics work. Graduating with $17,000 in debt against $60,000 in earnings gives you a manageable 0.29 debt-to-earnings ratio—you could realistically pay off that debt within a year or two of focused repayment. Compare that to the typical bachelor's degree holder who leaves school with nearly three times this debt load, and the value proposition becomes clearer.

The real question is whether your student can replicate these results. With such a small sample, you're essentially betting on this program's connections to local employers or its ability to prepare students for in-demand roles. If your family is Iowa-based and your student has genuine interest in tech careers, this could be a low-risk way to enter the field quickly. Just recognize you're working with limited data—talk to current students and recent grads to verify these numbers reflect typical outcomes, not exceptions.