Westmont College Business Economics (Bachelor's): Tuition, Graduate Salary, and Debt
- Bachelor's in Business/Managerial Economics
- Private nonprofit college
- Santa Barbara, CA
- About 60 graduates a year
College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025
The short answer
Westmont College business economics graduates earn about what business economics graduates earn nationally, $54,457 in their first year. Debt is high. The typical graduate leaves with $25,000 in federal loans, more than at 77% of business economics programs in the country. Two other California programs report higher pay.
How it compares
Each figure is the median for graduates of the program. The California and national columns are the medians across all business economics bachelor's programs that report the figure.
Five years out, Westmont College graduates earn more than the national figure and about the same as the California median.
Debt and first-year pay at every California business economics program
Programs in the upper left give graduates higher pay for less debt. Dashed lines mark the California 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 63% 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, but borrowed more: a median of $27,000 against $23,608.
Paying back the loans
On a standard 10-year plan, the median debt means a payment of about $265 a month, or 5.8% 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
76% of graduates (35 of 46) were working in California one year after graduating. Prices in the Santa Maria area are about 9% above the national average, so a $54,457 salary here buys what about $50,053 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 business economics, largest first. Pay is the median across all experience levels.
Management Analysts
$101,460Median pay in California. 137,280 people work in this job in California. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 10% from 2025 to 2035, with about 94,100 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree, plus less than 5 years of related work experience.
Financial Risk Specialists
$129,110Median pay in California. 5,740 people work in this job in California. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 7% from 2025 to 2035, with about 4,800 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.
Economists
$119,410Median pay in California. 860 people work in this job in California. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 5% from 2025 to 2035, with about 1,100 openings a year. Typical education to start: master's degree.
Survey Researchers
$83,520Median pay in California. 1,180 people work in this job in California. Nationally, jobs are projected to shrink 5% from 2025 to 2035, with about 600 openings a year. Typical education to start: master's degree.
About Westmont College
Business Economics ranks 2nd of 7 bachelor's programs at Westmont College by first-year earnings. The top three are Computer and Information Science ($83,026), Business Economics ($54,457), and Communications ($41,225).
Common questions
The median graduate earns $54,457 one year after graduating and $88,820 five years after. The median across business economics bachelor's programs in California is $53,047.
The median federal loan balance is $25,000, which ranks 8th lowest of 8 business economics bachelor's programs in California. That works out to about $265 a month over 10 years.
It depends on your other options. Debt equals 46% of first-year earnings, against a national median of 42%. Compare the cost with other California programs before deciding.
Most do. 76% (35 of 46) were working in California 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 California 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 business economics 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