Ethnic, Cultural Minority, Gender, and Group Studies at Gallaudet University

With only a handful of graduates in this cohort, the data here requires careful interpretation—but the Washington, DC location creates a particular concern. While Gallaudet's graduates earn right at the national median for this field ($31,541 versus $31,459), they're landing in the bottom 10th percentile among DC programs, where the typical graduate earns $46,206. That's a $15,000 gap in a city with notoriously high living costs. Georgetown and American University graduates in similar programs are starting at over $46,000, suggesting the DC job market rewards this degree very differently depending on where you earn it.

The debt picture offers one bright spot: at $28,125, students here borrow slightly more than the national median but less than other DC programs, and the 0.89 debt-to-earnings ratio means this is manageable debt—assuming that first-year salary represents typical outcomes. However, the small sample size means one or two graduates could be skewing these figures significantly in either direction.

For a parent, the key question is whether your student plans to stay in DC after graduation. If so, this program's below-market outcomes in an expensive city create a challenging financial equation. The degree itself isn't unusually burdensome debt-wise, but starting $15,000 behind local peers means playing catch-up from day one in a metro area where that gap matters enormously for quality of life.