Health Services/Allied Health/Health Sciences at Lipscomb University

A debt-to-earnings ratio of 0.77 looks manageable on paper, but that's only if the national estimates hold true for Lipscomb's specific program. Based on comparable bachelor's programs nationwide, graduates typically start around $35,000 and carry $27,000 in debt—numbers that would put this roughly in line with national norms for health sciences degrees. However, Tennessee's health services market tells a different story: the state median for these programs sits at just $26,734, nearly $9,000 below the national figure. That gap matters when you're budgeting loan payments on an entry-level healthcare salary.

The challenge with Lipscomb's program is that we're working entirely from estimates—both the earnings and debt figures are extrapolated from peer institutions because too few graduates reported data. This isn't unusual for smaller programs, but it does mean you're making a significant financial decision without knowing whether Lipscomb's graduates actually match these benchmarks or fall closer to Tennessee's lower state average. At a 67% admission rate with stronger-than-typical SAT scores, Lipscomb attracts solid students, but that doesn't guarantee the program delivers competitive career outcomes in Tennessee's healthcare market.

If your child is committed to health services, push Lipscomb's career services office for concrete placement data: which employers hire their graduates, what specific roles they enter, and actual starting salaries in Nashville's healthcare systems. Without that program-specific evidence, you're essentially betting $27,000 that this degree will outperform the Tennessee average.