Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology at University of Notre Dame

A $17,103 debt load stands out immediately—it's lower than 85% of biochemistry programs nationwide and roughly $6,000 below the typical Indiana program. For Notre Dame's highly selective student body (12% admission rate, 1510 SAT average), this suggests either generous financial aid or families who can pay substantial amounts out of pocket. That low debt figure matters more than usual here because the earnings data tells an incomplete story.

Based on comparable biochemistry programs nationally, first-year earnings hover around $38,000. That's notably below what similar programs at Indiana University ($45,526) and Purdue ($41,625) report for their graduates, though these peer comparisons come with significant uncertainty—we don't know whether Notre Dame students follow different career paths (like graduate school) or whether the estimation simply misses the mark. The 0.45 debt-to-earnings ratio looks manageable on paper, but if Indiana programs typically produce $43,576 in first-year earnings, there's a meaningful gap that the estimation may not capture.

What matters practically: if your child is considering medical school, PhD programs, or other graduate education—common paths for Notre Dame biochemistry students—then managing just $17,000 in undergraduate debt creates valuable flexibility. If they're heading straight to industry jobs, the estimated earnings seem low given the school's prestige, but without actual outcome data, you're essentially betting on the Notre Dame network and degree value to outperform what the numbers suggest.