Sociology at Seattle Pacific University

A $26,000 first-year salary from Seattle Pacific's sociology program should raise immediate concerns, even accounting for the small sample size that makes these numbers less reliable. Graduates are earning roughly $8,500 less than the Washington state median for sociology majors and landing in just the 5th percentile nationally—meaning 95% of sociology programs produce better initial outcomes. For context, nearby University of Washington graduates in the same field start at $40,000, while even Pacific Lutheran's sociology majors begin around $35,000.

The debt burden isn't unusually high at $25,000, matching the national median, but it nearly equals that first-year salary—a ratio that makes loan repayment difficult in practice. The fact that this program performs better relative to other Washington sociology programs (25th percentile) than to the national pool suggests the issue may be program-specific rather than just a Seattle cost-of-living disconnect, though the small graduate cohort here means one or two outcomes heavily skew the average.

Given the combination of below-market starting salaries and the program's high selectivity (91% admission rate at a private university price point), families should scrutinize whether this particular path justifies its cost. If your student is set on sociology at a private Washington institution, the data suggests looking at schools where recent graduates demonstrate clearer economic outcomes, or considering UW's significantly stronger track record in this major.