Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies at Northern Arizona University

A debt-to-earnings ratio of 0.66 sounds manageable on paper, but the reality for Northern Arizona's interdisciplinary bachelor's is less clear-cut. Based on national peer programs, graduates might expect around $38,700 in first-year earnings with roughly $25,400 in debt—but Arizona State's reported outcomes for similar programs show $45,875, suggesting NAU's interdisciplinary students could be starting nearly $7,000 behind their in-state competitors. That's a meaningful gap when you're making loan payments.

The challenge with interdisciplinary programs is they encompass such varied career paths that these estimates may not reflect what your student will actually experience. Comparable programs nationally produce a wide range of outcomes, and without specific data from NAU, you're essentially betting on where your child will land in that distribution. The 30% Pell Grant rate indicates NAU serves a significant population of lower-income students, which matters when considering debt loads.

Given the uncertainty and the fact that ASU's interdisciplinary graduates appear to earn substantially more, you need concrete answers from NAU about where their specific graduates land—which industries hire them, what roles they take, and what starting salaries look like. Without that visibility, you're choosing between a known quantity at ASU and an estimate at NAU that may or may not hold true for your student's particular interdisciplinary focus.