Clinical/Medical Laboratory Science/Research and Allied Professions at Seattle University

The estimated $25,000 in debt for Seattle University's clinical laboratory science program appears manageable against peer program outcomes showing around $65,000 in first-year earnings—a debt-to-earnings ratio under 0.4 that's generally considered reasonable for healthcare fields. However, parents should know they're making this decision largely in the dark: both the earnings and debt figures here are derived from national medians rather than actual outcomes for Seattle U graduates, because too few students completed this program for the Department of Education to report real data.

What we can see from Washington state's limited landscape suggests this field performs well locally. The University of Washington reports first-year earnings of $70,225 for its clinical lab science graduates, about $5,000 higher than the national benchmark used here. That gap matters—it could mean either that Seattle University's program performs similarly to UW's (strong regional outcomes), or that it falls closer to the national average. The estimated debt of $25,000 sits above Washington's state median of $20,000, though still below the national benchmark.

Given the complete absence of school-specific data, parents should directly ask Seattle University for job placement rates and starting salary information from recent graduates. Clinical laboratory science typically offers stable employment prospects in healthcare settings, but without actual outcomes from this program, you're evaluating based on what similar programs produce elsewhere rather than what this specific degree delivers.