Health Services/Allied Health/Health Sciences at University of Utah

A $35,000 starting salary against $24,800 in debt creates a manageable but tight financial picture for this broad health sciences degree. With a debt-to-earnings ratio of 0.70, peer programs nationally suggest graduates can realistically handle their loan payments—though they won't have much breathing room in those first years. The challenge here is that "Health Services/Allied Health/Health Sciences" is an umbrella category that can lead to vastly different career paths, from health administration to medical coding to community health work, each with distinct earning potential.

What complicates this assessment is that both the earnings and debt figures are estimates drawn from comparable programs nationwide, not actual outcomes from University of Utah graduates. The national median for this field sits right at $35,000, which means this program likely performs somewhere in that range—but without reported data from Utah's five programs in this field, it's impossible to know whether the university's specific curriculum, connections to Utah's healthcare systems, or student preparation produces better or worse results than average.

For parents, the key question is what specific role your student plans to pursue within this broad degree category. If this bachelor's serves as a stepping stone to graduate programs in healthcare administration or allied health professions, the initial modest earnings make sense. If it's meant as a terminal degree, verify what jobs University of Utah graduates actually land and what those positions pay in Salt Lake City's healthcare market—the estimated figures alone can't tell you whether this particular program delivers value.