Health and Medical Administrative Services at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

A debt-to-earnings ratio of 0.6 is manageable territory for a bachelor's degree, but the challenge here is knowing whether these national estimates—$44,345 in first-year earnings and $26,592 in debt—actually reflect what UAMS graduates experience. The good news: these figures suggest a reasonable starting point, with estimated earnings above the state median for this field. The uncertainty: this program is small enough that the Department of Education can't publish actual outcomes, making it difficult to know if UAMS's medical center affiliation translates into better job placement or pay than typical health administration programs.

Arkansas Tech's comparable program shows graduates earning $35,063—about 20% less than the national estimate used here. That gap matters when you're calculating monthly loan payments against actual take-home pay. If UAMS graduates cluster closer to that Arkansas figure rather than the national one, the financial picture tightens considerably. The school's location within a major academic medical center could be an advantage for networking and clinical exposure, but without actual earnings data, that remains speculative.

The core question is whether UAMS's specialized health science focus justifies the uncertainty. For a family comfortable borrowing near $27,000 with confidence their student will land squarely in healthcare administration roles, the estimated numbers work. But if you need certainty about outcomes before committing, the lack of published data here should factor into your decision alongside what you learn from talking to current students and recent graduates about their actual job placements.