Columbia College (Missouri) English (Bachelor's): Tuition, Graduate Salary, and Debt
- Bachelor's in English Language and Literature, General
- Private nonprofit college
- Columbia, MO
- About 15 graduates a year
College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025
The short answer
Columbia College (Missouri) English graduates earn less than graduates of most English programs nationally, $24,240 in their first year. Debt is high. The typical graduate leaves with $30,251 in federal loans, more than at 97% of English programs in the country. Several Missouri programs report higher pay.
How it compares
Each figure is the median for graduates of the program. The Missouri and national columns are the medians across all English bachelor's programs that report the figure.
Debt and first-year pay at every Missouri English program
Programs in the upper left give graduates higher pay for less debt. Dashed lines mark the Missouri medians.
Hover over or tap a dot to see the school. Only programs that report both earnings and debt are shown.
Paying back the loans
On a standard 10-year plan, the median debt means a payment of about $321 a month, or 15.9% of a graduate's typical monthly pay in the first year.
Where graduates work, and what the pay is worth
Prices in the Columbia area are about 11% below the national average, so a $24,240 salary here buys what about $27,103 buys in a typical US city.
Careers this field leads to
These are the jobs that the federal crosswalk from fields of study to occupations links to English, largest first. Pay is the median across all experience levels.
Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education
$59,240Median pay in Missouri. 24,380 people work in this job in Missouri. Nationally, jobs are projected to stay about the same in number from 2025 to 2035, with about 63,500 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.
Proofreaders and Copy Markers
$52,920Median pay in Missouri. 110 people work in this job in Missouri. Nationally, jobs are projected to shrink 1% from 2025 to 2035, with about 1,100 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.
About Columbia College (Missouri)
English ranks 18th of 18 bachelor's programs at Columbia College (Missouri) by first-year earnings. The top three are Nursing ($71,271), Computer and Information Science ($67,917), and Management Information Systems ($61,770).
Other English bachelor's programs near Columbia
Common questions
The median graduate earns $24,240 one year after graduating. The median across English bachelor's programs in Missouri is $29,001.
The median federal loan balance is $30,251, which ranks 7th lowest of 7 English bachelor's programs in Missouri. That works out to about $321 a month over 10 years.
It depends on your other options. Debt equals 125% of first-year earnings, against a national median of 77%. Compare the cost with other Missouri programs before deciding.
About this data
- Earnings and debt only include students who received federal financial aid (grants or loans).
- Earnings only count graduates who were working and not enrolled in more school. Graduates who went straight to further study are not included.
- Debt only includes federal loans. Private loans and credit cards are not counted.
- Some schools with several campuses report one combined figure for all of them. We count each of those schools once, and leave them out of Missouri comparisons when their main campus is in another state.
- Scorecard figures describe graduating classes from several years ago. BLS wages are from May 2025.
- School-level numbers like tuition, admission rate, and graduation rate are for the whole school, not the English program.
Sources
- U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard, field of study and institution files, June 2026 release
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2025 to 2035
- Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Price Parities, 2024
- NCES, CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk, and IPEDS institution directory, 2024