Allied Health Diagnostic, Intervention, and Treatment Professions at Fort Hays State University

The numbers here raise real questions, even accounting for the limited sample size. Fort Hays State graduates earn $39,212 in their first year—roughly $15,000 less than both the Kansas median and national average for this field. That gap matters practically: it's the difference between financial breathing room and living paycheck to paycheck in your first years out of school. Even at the four-year mark, when earnings climb to $50,725, this program still trails community college options like Johnson County CC and Kansas City KCC by $7,000 to $11,000 annually.

The debt load of $19,626 looks reasonable in isolation, but paired with below-average starting salaries, the 0.50 debt-to-earnings ratio means graduates are dedicating a larger chunk of those early paychecks to loan payments than peers who attended other Kansas programs. The 5th percentile national ranking is particularly stark—95% of similar programs nationwide produce better earnings outcomes.

With a small sample size, these results might not tell the full story, but they're concerning enough to warrant serious investigation. Before committing, talk to recent graduates directly and ask why earnings lag so far behind community college alternatives. Allied health careers typically offer stable employment, but this program isn't delivering the financial outcomes families should expect from a four-year institution—even for an associate degree.