Governors State Public Health (Bachelor's): Tuition, Graduate Salary, and Debt
- Bachelor's in Public Health
- Public university
- University Park, IL
- About 22 graduates a year
College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025
The short answer
Governors State public health graduates earn about what public health graduates earn nationally, $36,537 in their first year. The typical graduate leaves with $23,000 in federal loans, close to the national median of $25,000. Several Illinois programs report higher pay.
How it compares
Each figure is the median for graduates of the program. The Illinois and national columns are the medians across all public health bachelor's programs that report the figure.
Five years out, Governors State graduates earn less than the national figure and about $23,843 less than the Illinois median.
Debt and first-year pay at every Illinois public health program
Programs in the upper left give graduates higher pay for less debt. Dashed lines mark the Illinois 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 30% 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 $244 a month, or 8.0% 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
93% of graduates (38 of 41) were working in Illinois one year after graduating. Prices in the Chicago area are about 4% above the national average, so a $36,537 salary here buys what about $35,269 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 public health, largest first. Pay is the median across all experience levels.
Medical and Health Services Managers
$117,850Median pay in Illinois. 22,460 people work in this job in Illinois. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 24% from 2025 to 2035, with about 62,300 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree, plus less than 5 years of related work experience.
Compliance Officers
$80,550Median pay in Illinois. 10,650 people work in this job in Illinois. 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.
Medical Scientists, Except Epidemiologists
$82,330Median pay in Illinois. 4,700 people work in this job in Illinois. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 13% from 2025 to 2035, with about 10,500 openings a year. Typical education to start: doctoral or professional degree.
Occupational Health and Safety Specialists
$98,270Median pay in Illinois. 2,900 people work in this job in Illinois. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 19% from 2025 to 2035, with about 17,100 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.
About Governors State
Public Health ranks 12th of 15 bachelor's programs at Governors State by first-year earnings. The top three are Nursing ($80,391), Computer Science ($52,115), and Computer and Information Science ($48,567).
Other public health bachelor's programs near University Park
Common questions
The median graduate earns $36,537 one year after graduating and $47,418 five years after. The median across public health bachelor's programs in Illinois is $40,260.
The median federal loan balance is $23,000, which ranks 5th lowest of 6 public health bachelor's programs in Illinois. That works out to about $244 a month over 10 years.
On the numbers, yes for most students. Debt equals 63% of first-year earnings, against a national median of 63%. If the highest possible early salary is the main goal, several Illinois programs report higher pay.
Most do. 93% (38 of 41) were working in Illinois one year after graduating.
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 Illinois 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 public health 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