Middle Tennessee State Criminal Justice (Bachelor's): Tuition, Graduate Salary, and Debt
- Bachelor's in Criminal Justice and Corrections
- Public university
- Murfreesboro, TN
- About 126 graduates a year
College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025
The short answer
Middle Tennessee State criminal justice graduates earn about what criminal justice graduates earn nationally, $37,952 in their first year. The typical graduate leaves with $24,093 in federal loans, close to the national median of $26,000. Two other Tennessee programs report higher pay.
How it compares
Each figure is the median for graduates of the program. The Tennessee and national columns are the medians across all criminal justice bachelor's programs that report the figure.
Five years out, Middle Tennessee State graduates earn about the national figure and about $4,295 more than the Tennessee median.
Debt and first-year pay at every Tennessee criminal justice program
Programs in the upper left give graduates higher pay for less debt. Dashed lines mark the Tennessee 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 37% 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 slightly more in their first year than other graduates. They also borrowed less. At this program, the outcome does not look worse for students with less money.
Paying back the loans
On a standard 10-year plan, the median debt means a payment of about $255 a month, or 8.1% 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. Separately, 40 parents took out Parent PLUS loans for these students, with a median of $9,618.
Where graduates work, and what the pay is worth
90% of graduates (155 of 172) were working in Tennessee one year after graduating. Prices in the Nashville area are about 4% below the national average, so a $37,952 salary here buys what about $39,395 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
$36,000Median pay in Tennessee. 27,690 people work in this job in Tennessee. 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
$59,280Median pay in Tennessee. 15,630 people work in this job in Tennessee. 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
$63,960Median pay in Tennessee. 7,990 people work in this job in Tennessee. 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
$56,310Median pay in Tennessee. 7,870 people work in this job in Tennessee. 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 Middle Tennessee State
Criminal Justice ranks 23rd of 51 bachelor's programs at Middle Tennessee State by first-year earnings. The top three are Construction Management ($71,762), Mechatronics and Robotics Engineering ($71,664), and Engineering-Related Fields ($67,431).
Other criminal justice bachelor's programs near Murfreesboro
Common questions
The median graduate earns $37,952 one year after graduating and $52,140 five years after. The median across criminal justice bachelor's programs in Tennessee is $35,917.
The median federal loan balance is $24,093, which ranks 4th lowest of 10 criminal justice bachelor's programs in Tennessee. That works out to about $255 a month over 10 years.
On the numbers, yes for most students. Debt equals 63% 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.
Most do. 90% (155 of 172) were working in Tennessee 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 Tennessee 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