Chemistry at University of St Thomas

Texas chemistry graduates at larger state schools are pulling in nearly $50,000 in their first year, making this program's estimated $41,800 starting salary—derived from the state median—look modest by comparison. When you're carrying close to $25,000 in debt, that gap matters. The debt-to-earnings ratio sits at 0.60, which isn't alarming on its own, but it assumes you'll match that state median figure rather than fall below it.

What makes this harder to assess is St. Thomas's profile: a 93% acceptance rate and modest test scores suggest it serves a different student population than UT Austin or Texas A&M. Chemistry majors from similar programs in Texas typically see these earnings, but whether St. Thomas graduates specifically hit that mark—or exceed it through smaller class sizes and more personalized attention—remains unclear without actual outcome data. The $25,000 debt estimate comes from peer institutions nationally, not Texas specifically, where the median sits lower at $22,000.

The practical question is whether this program can deliver the same lab opportunities, research experiences, and recruiting pipelines that push graduates into better-paying positions. If your child is deciding between this and a state flagship, ask St. Thomas directly about graduate school placement rates and where recent chemistry majors actually landed jobs—concrete outcomes that no dataset can estimate.