UL Lafayette Criminal Justice (Bachelor's): Tuition, Graduate Salary, and Debt
- Bachelor's in Criminal Justice and Corrections
- Public university
- Lafayette, LA
- About 49 graduates a year
College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025
The short answer
UL Lafayette criminal justice graduates earn about what criminal justice graduates earn nationally, $35,872 in their first year. The typical graduate leaves with $23,557 in federal loans, close to the national median of $26,000. Two other Louisiana programs report higher pay.
How it compares
Each figure is the median for graduates of the program. The Louisiana and national columns are the medians across all criminal justice bachelor's programs that report the figure.
Five years out, UL Lafayette graduates earn less than the national figure and about $1,449 less than the Louisiana median. Several Louisiana programs with higher debt show higher pay by the five-year mark.
Debt and first-year pay at every Louisiana criminal justice program
Programs in the upper left give graduates higher pay for less debt. Dashed lines mark the Louisiana 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 12% 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 $7,667 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 $250 a month, or 8.4% 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
87% of graduates (52 of 60) were working in Louisiana one year after graduating. Prices in the Lafayette area are about 13% below the national average, so a $35,872 salary here buys what about $41,133 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
$32,240Median pay in Louisiana. 17,210 people work in this job in Louisiana. 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
$48,380Median pay in Louisiana. 12,400 people work in this job in Louisiana. 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
$70,290Median pay in Louisiana. 3,970 people work in this job in Louisiana. 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
$56,800Median pay in Louisiana. 1,110 people work in this job in Louisiana. 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 UL Lafayette
Criminal Justice ranks 16th of 35 bachelor's programs at UL Lafayette by first-year earnings. The top three are Nursing ($80,416), Electrical Engineering ($76,191), and Civil Engineering ($69,177).
Other criminal justice bachelor's programs near Lafayette
Common questions
The median graduate earns $35,872 one year after graduating and $40,154 five years after. The median across criminal justice bachelor's programs in Louisiana is $33,836.
The median federal loan balance is $23,557, which ranks 2nd lowest of 10 criminal justice bachelor's programs in Louisiana. That works out to about $250 a month over 10 years.
On the numbers, yes for most students. Debt equals 66% of first-year earnings, against a national median of 67%, and the share of borrowers in default two years into repayment is 20% or less.
Most do. 87% (52 of 60) were working in Louisiana 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 Louisiana 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