Biology at The College of Idaho

A $29,460 starting salary puts College of Idaho biology graduates roughly $2,200 below Idaho's median for the major and $2,800 behind the national figure—meaningful gaps when you're carrying $24,000 in debt. Among Idaho's seven biology programs, this ranks at the 40th percentile, trailing not just University of Idaho and Boise State (which is expected), but also Northwest Nazarene. The debt load itself isn't catastrophic—it's actually slightly below both state and national medians—but paired with below-average earnings, you're looking at a ratio where nearly 82 cents of every dollar earned goes toward debt coverage, at least on paper.

The small sample size here matters. With fewer than 30 graduates in the data, one or two students taking gap years or pursuing lower-paid lab positions can skew the entire picture downward. Biology is also notorious for its career path splits: pre-med students working as scribes or research assistants depress early earnings, while those heading straight into industry fare better. Still, even accounting for these factors, College of Idaho's outcomes trail similar-sized competitors in the state.

If your child is set on this school for fit or financial aid reasons, understand they'll likely need a clear plan beyond the bachelor's—whether that's medical school, graduate research, or pivoting into healthcare administration—to justify the investment. For students purely focused on biology career ROI, the numbers suggest looking at Idaho's larger public programs first.