Health and Physical Education/Fitness at University of Maryland-College Park

The headline here is extraordinary earnings growth: graduates jump from $31,400 to over $58,000 in just four years—an 86% increase that dwarfs typical career trajectories. While the first-year salary looks modest, by year four these graduates are earning nearly double what most health and PE majors make nationally. This suggests the program is opening doors to management, coaching, or specialized fitness roles that take a few years to secure but pay substantially better than entry-level positions.

The $23,138 debt load sits below both state and national medians for this field, though it's higher than you'd want relative to that initial salary. However, the debt-to-earnings ratio of 0.74 becomes far less concerning once you factor in where graduates land by year four. Among Maryland's 10 programs in this field, UMD ranks at the 60th percentile—middle of the pack—but pulls ahead of state flagships like Salisbury and Maryland Eastern Shore while carrying comparable debt to the state average.

The practical reality: expect your child to potentially work in a school, recreation center, or gym initially, but with strong prospects for advancement into higher-paying roles. The steep earnings curve suggests graduates are successfully transitioning beyond entry-level positions, making this a patience-required investment that appears to pay off. The robust sample size (100+ graduates tracked) makes these patterns reliable, not flukes.