Criminology at Fort Lewis College

Colorado criminology programs typically produce higher first-year earnings than the national median—the state benchmark sits at $40,667 compared to $37,476 nationally. Fort Lewis College's program, based on comparable national programs, appears to track closer to that national figure, potentially leaving some earnings on the table relative to other Colorado options like University of Denver, which reports the state median.

The debt picture offers a silver lining. At an estimated $23,406, graduates here would carry meaningfully less debt than both the Colorado median ($30,668) and national median ($25,000) for criminology degrees. That produces a debt-to-earnings ratio of 0.62—manageable for a field where first-year salaries rarely break $45,000. The lower borrowing burden could reflect Fort Lewis's smaller size or different student demographics (36% receive Pell grants), though without program-specific data, it's hard to pinpoint the cause.

The core challenge is that criminology degrees everywhere tend to produce modest starting salaries regardless of where you study, and we're working with estimated figures here rather than Fort Lewis's actual outcomes. If your child is drawn to this field, the lower estimated debt matters more than chasing marginally higher earnings elsewhere. But confirm these estimates align with recent graduates' actual experiences before committing, particularly since Colorado's small number of criminology programs (just five total) means the state benchmark may not fully capture Fort Lewis's specific placement patterns in Durango's regional market.