Purdue Fort Wayne Dental Hygiene and Assisting (Bachelor's): Tuition, Graduate Salary, and Debt
- Bachelor's in Dental Support Services and Allied Professions
- Public university
- Fort Wayne, IN
College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025
The short answer
Purdue Fort Wayne dental hygiene and assisting graduates earn less than graduates of most dental hygiene and assisting programs nationally, $51,095 in their first year. The typical graduate leaves with $25,082 in federal loans, close to the national median of $25,000. Several Indiana programs report higher pay.
How it compares
Each figure is the median for graduates of the program. The Indiana and national columns are the medians across all dental hygiene and assisting bachelor's programs that report the figure.
Five years out, Purdue Fort Wayne graduates earn about the national figure and about $4,208 more than the Indiana median.
Debt and first-year pay at every Indiana dental hygiene and assisting program
Programs in the upper left give graduates higher pay for less debt. Dashed lines mark the Indiana 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 21% 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 $6,741 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 $266 a month, or 6.2% of a graduate's typical monthly pay in the first year.
Where graduates work, and what the pay is worth
83% of graduates (45 of 54) were working in Indiana one year after graduating. Prices in the Fort Wayne area are about 7% below the national average, so a $51,095 salary here buys what about $55,195 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 dental hygiene and assisting, largest first. Pay is the median across all experience levels.
Dental Assistants
$48,670Median pay in Indiana. 6,690 people work in this job in Indiana. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 7% from 2025 to 2035, with about 53,000 openings a year. Typical education to start: postsecondary nondegree award.
Dental Hygienists
$92,330Median pay in Indiana. 5,020 people work in this job in Indiana. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 8% from 2025 to 2035, with about 15,000 openings a year. Typical education to start: associate's degree.
Dental Laboratory Technicians
$49,920Median pay in Indiana. 680 people work in this job in Indiana. Nationally, jobs are projected to shrink 6% from 2025 to 2035, with about 3,600 openings a year. Typical education to start: high school diploma or equivalent.
About Purdue Fort Wayne
Dental Hygiene and Assisting ranks 8th of 25 bachelor's programs at Purdue Fort Wayne by first-year earnings. The top three are Nursing ($70,046), Electrical Engineering ($67,236), and Mechanical Engineering Technology ($65,385).
Common questions
The median graduate earns $51,095 one year after graduating and $61,653 five years after. The median across dental hygiene and assisting bachelor's programs in Indiana is $57,654.
The median federal loan balance is $25,082, which ranks 3rd lowest of 5 dental hygiene and assisting bachelor's programs in Indiana. That works out to about $266 a month over 10 years.
It depends on your other options. Debt equals 49% of first-year earnings, against a national median of 42%. Compare the cost with other Indiana programs before deciding.
Most do. 83% (45 of 54) were working in Indiana 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 Indiana 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 dental hygiene and assisting 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