Health and Physical Education/Fitness at Whittier College

Whittier's Health and Physical Education program starts with a challenging first-year salary of $24,055—about $4,000 below California's median for this degree and roughly $6,500 below the national average. While the 40th percentile ranking among California programs sounds middle-of-the-road, remember that this field doesn't pay particularly well anywhere: even the state's top programs like California Baptist only reach $35,328. The $26,000 in debt is close to national norms but notably higher than California's typical $19,870, creating an immediate debt-to-earnings ratio above 1.0.

The 46% earnings growth to $35,089 by year four is the program's strongest feature, eventually bringing graduates near the state median. However, the small sample size here matters—with fewer than 30 graduates tracked, these numbers could swing significantly year to year and may not reflect your child's likely experience. The program serves a relatively high percentage of Pell-eligible students (32%) at a school with an 85% admission rate, suggesting it provides access but perhaps not the career network or internship pipelines of California's better-performing programs.

If your child is passionate about PE teaching or fitness and plans to stay in California, understand they're looking at lean early years financially. The debt load isn't catastrophic, but in a field where even strong programs struggle to deliver robust earnings, starting behind makes the path harder.