Columbia Southern University Criminal Justice (Bachelor's): Tuition, Graduate Salary, and Debt
- Bachelor's in Criminal Justice and Corrections
- Private for-profit university
- Orange Beach, AL
- About 256 graduates a year
College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025
The short answer
Columbia Southern University criminal justice graduates earn more than graduates of most criminal justice programs nationally, $60,461 in their first year. Debt is high. The typical graduate leaves with $30,204 in federal loans, more than at 85% of criminal justice programs in the country. It is one of the higher-paying criminal justice degrees in Alabama.
How it compares
Each figure is the median for graduates of the program. The Alabama and national columns are the medians across all criminal justice bachelor's programs that report the figure.
Five years out, Columbia Southern University graduates earn more than the national figure and about $13,348 more than the Alabama median.
Debt and first-year pay at every Alabama criminal justice program
Programs in the upper left give graduates higher pay for less debt. Dashed lines mark the Alabama medians.
Hover over or tap a dot to see the school. Only programs that report both earnings and debt are shown.
What graduates earn over time
Pay rises about 2% between the first and fifth year.
Year 1 and year 5 figures come from different graduating classes, so the growth rate is an estimate.
Does family income change the outcome?
Graduates who received Pell Grants, which go to students from lower-income families, earned $30,088 less in their first year than other graduates. They also borrowed more. Students who expect to rely on grants should weigh this gap.
Paying back the loans
On a standard 10-year plan, the median debt means a payment of about $320 a month, or 6.4% of a graduate's typical monthly pay in the first year.
The government publishes these as ranges to protect privacy. They were measured in 2018 to 2020, partly during the pandemic pause on federal loan payments, so the forbearance share may be higher than usual.
Where graduates work, and what the pay is worth
Prices in the Daphne area are about 5% below the national average, so a $60,461 salary here buys what about $63,852 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 criminal justice, largest first. Pay is the median across all experience levels.
Security Guards
$33,720Median pay in Alabama. 15,210 people work in this job in Alabama. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 1% from 2025 to 2035, with about 156,000 openings a year. Typical education to start: high school diploma or equivalent.
Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officers
$51,270Median pay in Alabama. 11,710 people work in this job in Alabama. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 4% from 2025 to 2035, with about 51,500 openings a year. Typical education to start: high school diploma or equivalent.
Compliance Officers
$72,990Median pay in Alabama. 3,770 people work in this job in Alabama. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 4% from 2025 to 2035, with about 32,700 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.
Child, Family, and School Social Workers
$46,660Median pay in Alabama. 4,220 people work in this job in Alabama. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 4% from 2025 to 2035, with about 33,900 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.
About Columbia Southern University
Criminal Justice ranks 7th of 12 bachelor's programs at Columbia Southern University by first-year earnings. The top three are Diagnostic and Treatment Professions ($83,927), Fire Science ($82,718), and Quality Control and Safety Technology ($78,532).
Other criminal justice bachelor's programs near Orange Beach
Common questions
The median graduate earns $60,461 one year after graduating and $61,453 five years after. The median across criminal justice bachelor's programs in Alabama is $34,459.
The median federal loan balance is $30,204, which ranks 9th lowest of 11 criminal justice bachelor's programs in Alabama. That works out to about $320 a month over 10 years.
On the numbers, yes for most students. Debt equals 50% of first-year earnings, against a national median of 67%, and the share of borrowers in default two years into repayment is 10% or less.
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 Alabama 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 criminal justice 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