Computer/Information Technology Administration and Management at University of Arkansas Grantham

Graduates from this online program—University of Arkansas Grantham is a primarily distance-education institution—earn $86,607 in their first year, which sounds impressive until you realize Arkansas only has three schools offering this degree, making state comparisons essentially meaningless. The more telling metric: these graduates out-earn 95% of similar programs nationally, bringing in nearly $30,000 more than the typical $58,056 median for IT management bachelor's degrees. With debt at $32,853 (close to the national median) and a 0.38 debt-to-earnings ratio, graduates could reasonably clear their loans in well under a year if they committed heavily to repayment.

The major asterisk here is sample size—fewer than 30 graduates means one or two high earners could skew the entire picture. For an online program serving predominantly lower-income students (62% receive Pell grants), that $86,607 figure could represent best-case outcomes rather than typical results. The lack of multi-year earnings data also means we can't see whether this strong start holds up.

If your child is considering this program, understand you're looking at promising but statistically fragile data. The debt load is manageable relative to first-year earnings, but with such a small cohort, there's no way to know if the next class will see similar results. It's a reasonable gamble for someone who needs online flexibility and is specifically interested in IT management, but don't treat these earnings as guaranteed.