Public Health at East Carolina University

East Carolina's public health bachelor's lands solidly in the middle of the pack—below both national and state medians for the field, ranking around the 40th percentile among North Carolina programs. First-year graduates earn $35,628, roughly $2,000 less than the typical NC public health graduate, with solid 21% earnings growth pushing them to $43,026 by year four. This falls well short of what top programs like NC A&T ($58,660) or even UNC-Greensboro ($42,239) deliver, but the debt burden of $25,750 is manageable at 0.72 times first-year earnings.

The real question is whether a degree that tracks below average justifies the investment when stronger alternatives exist within North Carolina's public university system. ECU serves a purpose—it's highly accessible with a 90% admission rate and 31% Pell enrollment—but students should understand they're accepting below-median outcomes. The earnings trajectory improves over time, which helps, yet graduates never quite catch up to what other NC programs deliver from day one.

For families prioritizing access and local opportunities in eastern North Carolina, this works. But if your child can gain admission to UNC-Greensboro or NC Central, those programs offer meaningfully better starting positions without substantially different debt loads. The value here isn't exceptional—it's functional for students who need ECU's accessibility but wouldn't be my first choice for maximizing public health career prospects.