Cell/Cellular Biology and Anatomical Sciences at University of Minnesota-Duluth

UMN-Duluth's cellular biology program outperforms national benchmarks by a wide margin—graduates earn $44,501 in their first year, placing this program in the 82nd percentile nationally and well above the $35,393 median for this degree. That's impressive, though the 60th percentile ranking within Minnesota suggests the state simply has strong life sciences outcomes overall. What really stands out here is the debt picture: at $25,304, students borrow just slightly more than the national median but well below many competitors, creating a debt-to-earnings ratio of 0.57 that most biology graduates would envy.

The earnings trajectory looks healthy too, with 19% growth to $53,125 by year four. This isn't a field where graduates typically peak early and plateau. The combination of reasonable debt and solid growth suggests graduates have breathing room to pursue graduate school, research positions, or clinical work without financial strain. Interestingly, this program's outcomes exceed those at the flagship Twin Cities campus, despite Duluth's less selective admissions—though with fewer than 30 graduates in the sample, we can't be certain these results hold consistently year to year.

For parents, this represents a straightforward value proposition: strong regional outcomes in a field that often requires further education, achieved without taking on crushing debt. The small program size might actually appeal to students who want more faculty attention during critical pre-med or pre-research years.