Biology at Malone University

A $22,005 salary one year after earning a biology degree should alarm any parent considering this investment. That's roughly $11 per hour—barely above minimum wage in many states—and falls in the bottom 5% of biology programs nationally. Even within Ohio, where life sciences salaries run about $9,000 below the national average, Malone ranks in just the 25th percentile. Compare this to Miami University's biology graduates, who earn $38,122 their first year out, and the gap becomes stark.

The program carries $27,000 in debt, which means graduates owe more than their entire first year's salary. This debt-to-earnings ratio of 1.23 creates immediate financial stress: even aggressive repayment plans will consume a large portion of take-home pay, leaving little room for rent, transportation, or other essentials in a young graduate's budget. Biology is already a challenging field financially—most students need graduate school to access higher-paying careers—but starting this far behind makes that path significantly harder to navigate.

The small sample size here is worth noting, as fewer than 30 recent graduates means one or two outliers could skew the picture. However, with both earnings and debt ranking in the bottom 5% nationally, the pattern suggests real concerns about this program's ability to launch biology careers. Parents should directly ask Malone about graduate school placement rates and whether most students pursue additional degrees, as that context would completely change how to interpret these first-year numbers.