Bachelor’s degree · earnings 4 years after completing
Highest-Paying Colleges for Criminal Justice (Bachelor's)
Graduates who complete a bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice earn a median of $55,378 four years after finishing, and the middle half earn between $40,158 and $74,359. We rank the 477 U.S. colleges whose Criminal Justice programs have at least 25 graduates in the Scorecard earnings sample, 58,004 graduates in all. That puts Criminal Justice at #86 of 131 bachelor's degree fields we rank by national median earnings.
Calumet College of Saint Joseph, in Indiana, leads at $106,465, 93% above the median ranked school ($55,033). Most schools are tightly bunched: the middle half of ranked schools earn between $50,173 and $59,401, and the lowest earns $35,015, so outside the leaders the choice of school moves earnings less than the choice of major. 230 of the 477 ranked schools (48%) match or beat the national median.
Private nonprofit colleges dominate the top 20: 18 private nonprofit, 1 public and 1 for-profit. Across all ranked schools, 58% are public. The top 20 are spread across 17 states, with Massachusetts the most common (3).
The top 20 schools cost more than most: a median net price of $23,363 a year, against $16,681 across all 477 ranked schools. Their graduates who borrowed carry a median of $25,000 in federal loans, about 34% of one year of earnings. Measured against a typical high-school graduate in the same state, the median top-20 school recovers its net cost in about 2.7 years.
Showing the top 50 of 477 ranked schools. Select a column heading to re-sort the table. † = fewer than 40 graduates in the earnings sample.
| 1 | Calumet College of Saint Joseph Whiting, IN Private nonprofit · 4-year | $106,465 | 51 | $19,500 | $22,451 | 1.3 |
| 2 | National University San Diego, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $81,299 | 113 | $25,000 | $22,878 | 2.1 |
| 3 | Fisher College Boston, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $80,136 | 42 | $26,500 | $26,649 | 2.7 |
| 4 | George Washington University Washington, DC Private nonprofit · 4-year | $80,070 | 45 | $19,500 | $36,586 | 3.7 |
| 5 | Saint Mary's University of Minnesota Winona, MN Private nonprofit · 4-year | $79,464 | 29 † | — | $11,704 | 1.1 |
| 6 | Quinnipiac University Hamden, CT Private nonprofit · 4-year | $79,098 | 44 | $27,000 | $40,675 | 3.9 |
| 7 | Northeastern University Boston, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $77,477 | 50 | $20,889 | $30,915 | 3.4 |
| 8 | Nichols College Dudley, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $75,321 | 44 | $27,000 | $33,036 | 3.9 |
| 9 | Central Christian College of Kansas McPherson, KS Private nonprofit · 4-year | $74,997 | 88 | $31,250 | $11,404 | 1.1 |
| 10 | Seattle University Seattle, WA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $74,018 | 28 † | $19,702 | $34,662 | 4.2 |
| 11 | Concordia University-Saint Paul Saint Paul, MN Private nonprofit · 4-year | $73,060 | 43 | $23,112 | $18,462 | 2.1 |
| 12 | Marymount University Arlington, VA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $73,058 | 34 † | $25,000 | $29,137 | 3.2 |
| 13 | Siena Heights University Adrian, MI Private nonprofit · 4-year | $72,791 | 95 | $19,286 | $17,124 | 1.8 |
| 14 | Mercer University Macon, GA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $71,602 | 33 † | $25,000 | $23,847 | 2.5 |
| 15 | Roger Williams University Bristol, RI Private nonprofit · 4-year | $70,747 | 109 | $26,000 | $37,999 | 5.0 |
| 16 | Columbia Southern University Orange Beach, AL For-profit · 4-year | $70,354 | 205 | $20,209 | $14,580 | 1.5 |
| 17 | Franklin Pierce University Rindge, NH Private nonprofit · 4-year | $70,125 | 57 | $27,000 | $27,154 | 3.9 |
| 18 | Norwich University Northfield, VT Private nonprofit · 4-year | $70,075 | 157 | $26,000 | $22,257 | 2.7 |
| 19 | Utica University Utica, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $69,898 | 82 | $24,345 | $19,108 | 2.2 |
| 20 | University of Maryland Global Campus Adelphi, MD Public · 4-year | $69,848 | 251 | $20,406 | $22,063 | 2.7 |
| 21 | Merrimack College North Andover, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $69,615 | 45 | $27,000 | $37,927 | 5.3 |
| 22 | American Public University System Charles Town, WV For-profit · 4-year | $69,546 | 370 | $20,888 | $9,597 | 1.1 |
| 23 | George Mason University Fairfax, VA Public · 4-year | $69,511 | 401 | $17,750 | $17,915 | 2.2 |
| 24 | Utah Valley University Orem, UT Public · 4-year | $68,296 | 72 | $19,586 | $6,376 | 0.9 |
| 25 | Monmouth University West Long Branch, NJ Private nonprofit · 4-year | $67,842 | 103 | $27,000 | $30,988 | 4.0 |
| 26 | Salve Regina University Newport, RI Private nonprofit · 4-year | $67,622 | 66 | $27,000 | $36,967 | 5.4 |
| 27 | Minot State University Minot, ND Public · 4-year | $67,554 | 34 † | $15,753 | $12,703 | 1.7 |
| 28 | Westfield State University Westfield, MA Public · 4-year | $67,363 | 311 | $21,500 | $16,721 | 2.5 |
| 29 | Bowie State University Bowie, MD Public · 4-year | $67,303 | 107 | $21,500 | $19,298 | 2.6 |
| 30 | Centenary University Hackettstown, NJ Private nonprofit · 4-year | $67,181 | 39 † | $20,000 | $20,503 | 2.7 |
| 31 | American University Washington, DC Private nonprofit · 4-year | $66,970 | 51 | $23,250 | $41,943 | 6.3 |
| 32 | Sonoma State University Rohnert Park, CA Public · 4-year | $66,892 | 69 | $20,000 | $12,885 | 1.7 |
| 33 | Felician University Lodi, NJ Private nonprofit · 4-year | $66,879 | 27 † | $26,000 | $40,045 | 5.4 |
| 34 | Saint Cloud State University Saint Cloud, MN Public · 4-year | $66,850 | 129 | $18,250 | $13,529 | 1.9 |
| 35 | Western Connecticut State University Danbury, CT Public · 4-year | $66,510 | 117 | $24,000 | $17,604 | 2.4 |
| 36 | University of Massachusetts-Lowell Lowell, MA Public · 4-year | $66,258 | 315 | $21,502 | $17,163 | 2.7 |
| 37 | Tiffin University Tiffin, OH Private nonprofit · 4-year | $66,059 | 68 | $27,000 | $26,500 | 3.5 |
| 38 | Marist University Poughkeepsie, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $65,881 | 69 | $25,954 | $41,544 | 5.5 |
| 39 | High Point University High Point, NC Private nonprofit · 4-year | $65,607 | 48 | — | $38,707 | 4.9 |
| 40 | California Baptist University Riverside, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $65,603 | 77 | $26,000 | $26,285 | 3.7 |
| 41 | Worcester State University Worcester, MA Public · 4-year | $65,588 | 184 | $21,050 | $13,381 | 2.2 |
| 42 | Citadel Military College of South Carolina Charleston, SC Public · 4-year | $65,574 | 103 | $24,189 | $20,723 | 2.7 |
| 43 | California State University-East Bay Hayward, CA Public · 4-year | $64,835 | 236 | $15,000 | $9,320 | 1.3 |
| 44 | Southwest Minnesota State University Marshall, MN Public · 4-year | $64,654 | 25 † | $26,000 | $15,291 | 2.3 |
| 45 | Minnesota State University-Mankato Mankato, MN Public · 4-year | $64,585 | 150 | $21,500 | $19,139 | 2.9 |
| 46 | Metropolitan State University Saint Paul, MN Public · 4-year | $64,481 | 211 | $16,146 | $16,863 | 2.5 |
| 47 | Curry College Milton, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $64,406 | 111 | $25,000 | $29,207 | 5.0 |
| 48 | Bridgewater State University Bridgewater, MA Public · 4-year | $64,178 | 308 | $24,135 | $16,383 | 2.8 |
| 49 | DeSales University Center Valley, PA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $64,020 | 50 | $27,000 | $31,643 | 4.6 |
| 50 | St. John's University-New York Queens, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $63,978 | 207 | $25,552 | $29,999 | 4.3 |
How this ranking is built
A school appears here only if it meets every condition below.
- Which programs count
- Main campuses only, one entry per institution. Scorecard reports program outcomes for the whole six-digit federal ID (OPEID6), so branch campuses share their parent’s numbers and are not listed twice.
- Only bachelor's degree programs in Criminal Justice (CIP 4301, the four-digit code Scorecard uses to group related programs).
- At least 25 graduates in the earnings sample. Smaller samples are left out because their medians swing too much and the counts carry a little privacy noise.
- A major gets a page only when at least 20 schools qualify. This one has 477.
- Ranked by median earnings 4 years after completing, highest first. Ties go to the larger sample, then to the school name.
- Schools missing earnings or a sample size are left out rather than estimated.
- What the numbers mean
- Earnings: median annual earnings of graduates four years after completing. The cohort completed in academic years 2017-18 and 2018-19 and was measured in calendar years 2022 and 2023, in 2024 dollars.
- Who is counted: graduates who received federal student aid (Title IV grants or loans), and only those who were working and not enrolled in more school that year. Graduates without federal aid, those who went on to further study and those with no earnings are not in the median.
- Scorecard adds privacy noise to counts and medians and hides values it cannot protect, so a gap of a few percent between two schools is not meaningful.
- Graduates: the number of graduates in that earnings sample. A † marks fewer than 40, where the figure is less precise.
- Debt: median federal loan debt (Stafford and Grad PLUS loans disbursed at that school) of graduates who borrowed, from the 2018-19 and 2019-20 completers. Parent PLUS and private loans are not included.
- Net price: average yearly cost after grants and scholarships for the whole institution, not this major, academic year 2023-24.
- Payback: 4 years of net price divided by how much these earnings exceed a high-school graduate’s in the school’s state. Shown only when that gap is at least $2,000, the same formula as the rest of the site.
- Source: U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard field-of-study data, June 2026 release.
Top states for Criminal Justice earnings
Median of the school medians for states with at least 3 ranked schools. The best school in each state is shown.
| State | Median earnings | Ranked schools | Top school |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minnesota | $64,481 | 11 | Saint Mary's University of Minnesota |
| Massachusetts | $64,292 | 16 | Fisher College |
| District of Columbia | $63,339 | 4 | George Washington University |
| Rhode Island | $62,889 | 4 | Roger Williams University |
| Washington | $62,747 | 5 | Seattle University |
| Utah | $62,191 | 3 | Utah Valley University |
| Maryland | $61,348 | 7 | University of Maryland Global Campus |
| New Hampshire | $59,998 | 5 | Franklin Pierce University |
| Oregon | $59,008 | 3 | Western Oregon University |
| Connecticut | $58,913 | 9 | Quinnipiac University |
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