Florida Southern College Criminology (Bachelor's): Tuition, Graduate Salary, and Debt
- Bachelor's in Criminology
- Private nonprofit college
- Lakeland, FL
- About 19 graduates a year
College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025
The short answer
Florida Southern College criminology graduates earn about what criminology graduates earn nationally, $39,713 in their first year. The typical graduate leaves with $26,000 in federal loans, close to the national median of $25,000. One other Florida program reports higher pay.
How it compares
Each figure is the median for graduates of the program. The Florida and national columns are the medians across all criminology bachelor's programs that report the figure.
Five years out, Florida Southern College graduates earn less than the national figure and about the same as the Florida median.
Debt and first-year pay at every Florida criminology program
Programs in the upper left give graduates higher pay for less debt. Dashed lines mark the Florida 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 29% between the first and fifth year.
Year 1 and year 5 figures come from different graduating classes, so the growth rate is an estimate.
Paying back the loans
On a standard 10-year plan, the median debt means a payment of about $276 a month, or 8.3% of a graduate's typical monthly pay in the first year.
Where graduates work, and what the pay is worth
Prices in the Lakeland area are about 3% below the national average, so a $39,713 salary here buys what about $40,882 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 criminology, largest first. Pay is the median across all experience levels.
Sociologists
$46,950Median pay in Florida. 160 people work in this job in Florida. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 4% from 2025 to 2035, with about 200 openings a year. Typical education to start: master's degree.
About Florida Southern College
Criminology ranks 5th of 11 bachelor's programs at Florida Southern College by first-year earnings. The top three are Nursing ($75,019), Subject-Area Teacher Education ($46,418), and Teacher Education ($46,088).
Other criminology bachelor's programs near Lakeland
Common questions
The median graduate earns $39,713 one year after graduating and $51,091 five years after. The median across criminology bachelor's programs in Florida is $35,096.
The median federal loan balance is $26,000, which ranks 6th lowest of 7 criminology bachelor's programs in Florida. That works out to about $276 a month over 10 years.
It depends on your other options. Debt equals 65% of first-year earnings, against a national median of 64%. Compare the cost with other Florida 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 Florida 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 criminology 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