Fire Protection

Is a Fire Protection degree worth it?

Across 18 bachelor's programs that report earnings, the median pays its graduates $57,522 a year after graduation, and the middle half pay between $43,087 and $71,931. The median for all majors is $37,050. At the median program, graduates who borrowed owe $5,376.

Fire protection graduates start out earning well above the typical major one year after graduating. The best-paying programs are online degree-completion programs for people already working in fire and emergency services, and they admit about as many applicants as the rest of the major. Southern Illinois University Carbondale's fire service management track admits only students with public safety training, licenses or job experience, so its figure reflects the pay of working firefighters.

The lowest-paying programs have no single explanation. Some report too few graduates for their figures to be reliable, and others mix online tracks for working firefighters with campus programs whose graduates take entry-level jobs. Fewer than half of programs report earnings at all, and a student coming straight from high school is unlikely to match the figures of students already in the fire service.

These are earnings one year after graduating, for students who received federal aid. Majors that lead to graduate school, or to careers that start slowly, look worse here than they will ten years on.