Westmont College Psychology (Bachelor's): Tuition, Graduate Salary, and Debt
- Bachelor's in Psychology, General
- Private nonprofit college
- Santa Barbara, CA
- About 27 graduates a year
College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025
The short answer
Westmont College psychology graduates earn more than graduates of most psychology programs nationally, $34,826 in their first year. The typical graduate leaves with $25,500 in federal loans, close to the national median of $25,624. It is one of the higher-paying psychology degrees in California.
How it compares
Each figure is the median for graduates of the program. The California and national columns are the medians across all psychology 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 psychology 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 60% 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 $270 a month, or 9.3% of a graduate's typical monthly pay in the first year.
Where graduates work, and what the pay is worth
75% of graduates (21 of 28) were working in California one year after graduating. Prices in the Santa Maria area are about 9% above the national average, so a $34,826 salary here buys what about $32,010 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 psychology, largest first. Pay is the median across all experience levels.
Clinical and Counseling Psychologists
$116,000Median pay in California. 12,840 people work in this job in California. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 12% from 2025 to 2035, with about 4,100 openings a year. Typical education to start: doctoral or professional degree.
Social Science Research Assistants
$60,250Median pay in California. 5,300 people work in this job in California. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 5% from 2025 to 2035, with about 4,900 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.
Industrial-Organizational Psychologists
$193,950Median pay nationwide. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 7% from 2025 to 2035, with about 300 openings a year. Typical education to start: master's degree.
About Westmont College
Psychology ranks 5th 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).
Other psychology bachelor's programs near Santa Barbara
Common questions
The median graduate earns $34,826 one year after graduating and $55,705 five years after. The median across psychology bachelor's programs in California is $30,592.
The median federal loan balance is $25,500, which ranks 46th lowest of 54 psychology bachelor's programs in California. That works out to about $270 a month over 10 years.
On the numbers, yes for most students. Debt equals 73% of first-year earnings, against a national median of 78%. If the highest possible early salary is the main goal, several California programs report higher pay.
Most do. 75% (21 of 28) 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 psychology 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