Philosophy at University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus

With earnings above both the national and Colorado medians for philosophy majors, UC Denver graduates a surprisingly small cohort who start at $36,307—better than 67% of philosophy programs nationwide and 60% within Colorado. The $31,000 in debt translates to a 0.85 debt-to-earnings ratio, which sits in the 5th percentile nationally (meaning 95% of programs leave students with higher debt burdens). That's an unusually manageable financial position for a humanities degree at a university with a 78% acceptance rate.

The caution here is sample size: with fewer than 30 graduates tracked, these numbers could shift significantly year to year. Philosophy programs are rarely large, but this one appears particularly small, which means one or two outlier careers could skew the averages. Still, the debt figure is based on actual institutional data and suggests UC Denver keeps borrowing reasonable even for a modest-earning major.

For parents worried about ROI, this program offers better-than-average starting earnings with debt that's genuinely low—not just for philosophy, but for any bachelor's degree. If your student is committed to philosophy and prefers staying in Colorado, this beats the more prominent CSU-Fort Collins program on earnings by nearly $8,500. Just understand you're betting on a small dataset, and philosophy careers often require graduate school or patience to find the right professional fit.