Criminal Justice and Corrections at Point Park University

Point Park's Criminal Justice program starts graduates $4,000 below the national median and nearly $4,000 below Pennsylvania's typical outcomes—landing at the 40th percentile among PA schools. The first-year salary of $33,542 barely covers living expenses in Pittsburgh, and while earnings jump 36% by year four to $45,678, graduates still trail peers at York College or DeSales by several thousand dollars annually. The $29,037 debt load sits slightly above state norms, creating a debt-to-earnings ratio that, while not catastrophic, means graduates will spend their first year earning just 15% more than they owe.

The concerning part isn't just that this program underperforms—it's that Pennsylvania offers clearly stronger alternatives at similar price points. Graduates from York College start at $42,175, giving them nearly $9,000 more in first-year breathing room with comparable debt. Even accounting for the strong earnings growth trajectory here, Point Park graduates need years to catch up to where peers at top PA programs begin.

With fewer than 30 graduates in the dataset, these numbers could shift, but the pattern is hard to ignore: this program struggles to compete even within its own state. For families considering criminal justice degrees in Pennsylvania, visiting the higher-performing programs first makes sense—the earnings gap compounds significantly over a career.