Clinical/Medical Laboratory Science/Research and Allied Professions at Orange County Community College

A debt-to-earnings ratio of 0.41 suggests this program could offer solid value, though it's important to understand what we're working with here. Because Orange County Community College's graduate cohort is too small for the Department of Education to publish, both the $48,026 earnings figure and the $19,698 debt estimate come from national medians across similar lab science programs—not from this school's actual graduates.

That national benchmark puts this field well below what similar programs typically produce in New York, where lab science associate's degrees generate median first-year earnings around $53,886. SUNY Broome, for instance, reports exactly that figure. The $6,000 gap matters: it's the difference between paying off your debt in roughly 5 months of gross earnings versus 7 months. If this program's outcomes align more closely with New York norms than national ones—a reasonable possibility given regional healthcare wages—the value proposition improves considerably.

The debt estimate of roughly $20,000 is notably lower than New York's $30,000 median for this field, which helps offset the earnings uncertainty. For a two-year healthcare credential that typically leads to steady employment in hospitals and diagnostic labs, these numbers suggest manageable financial risk. Still, without actual graduate data from this specific program, you're making an educated guess based on peer institutions rather than proven track record.