Biology at Shenandoah University

Shenandoah's biology program stands out sharply in Virginia's crowded field—beating 80% of the state's programs and coming close to top performers like VMI and Hampden-Sydney. First-year earnings of $41,000 place graduates nearly $9,000 above Virginia's median for biology majors, a substantial advantage for a program at a school with a 78% acceptance rate.

The debt picture looks reasonable at $23,250, translating to a 0.57 debt-to-earnings ratio that's manageable compared to the typical biology graduate's burden. More encouraging is the 30% earnings jump to $53,000 by year four—suggesting graduates are finding career traction rather than stalling at entry-level positions. For context, this outpaces the national biology median by $21,000 at that four-year mark.

The caveat here matters: with fewer than 30 graduates in the data, these numbers could shift with a larger sample. But the earnings advantage is large enough that even with some regression, this program appears to deliver solid outcomes. For parents worried about biology's reputation as a challenging major with modest pay, Shenandoah's graduates seem to be doing notably better than most—at least among this cohort.