Public Health at Ithaca College

Ithaca College's Public Health program starts graduates at $32,000—about $7,000 below New York's median and roughly $5,000 under the national average for this degree. That's bottom-quartile performance in a state where CUNY Hunter and several other programs consistently launch graduates above $44,000. The silver lining is debt: at $22,000, it's manageable and about $4,000 below typical borrowing for this major, creating a reasonable debt-to-earnings ratio even with the weaker starting salary.

The program does show solid earnings growth—39% by year four brings graduates to nearly $45,000. However, those gains barely catch you up to where stronger programs start. When Cornell and Syracuse public health grads begin their careers around $43,000-$45,000, Ithaca's graduates spend their first three years playing catch-up. For a selective private college with average SAT scores of 1285, these outcomes fall short of expectations.

The critical caveat: this data reflects fewer than 30 graduates, so individual experiences may vary significantly. Still, the pattern is clear enough to warrant serious questions. If your child is paying private college tuition at Ithaca, the public health program isn't delivering competitive career positioning compared to both SUNY options and peer private institutions across New York. Unless there's a specific program strength or career pathway that justifies the gap, this is a tough financial case to make.