Which Ohio finance program has the lowest debt?

Cedarville University reports the lowest median federal debt, $16,750, with first-year pay of $60,880.

How much do finance graduates earn in Ohio?

The median across 21 Ohio finance bachelor's programs is $55,590 in the first year after graduating and $77,197 five years after.

How many finance bachelor's programs are in Ohio?

21 Ohio programs report first-year pay for their graduates, and 20 of them also report federal debt.

Finance (Bachelor's) Programs in Ohio, Ranked by Graduate Pay and Debt

21 programs report first-year pay
20 also report federal debt
Bachelor's in Finance and Financial Management Services

College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025

The short answer

The median Ohio finance bachelor's program pays its graduates $55,590 in their first year, $2,217 more than the national median. Miami University reports the highest first-year pay ($71,203), and Cedarville University the lowest median debt ($16,750).

Median first-year pay$55,590National $53,373

Median pay after 5 years$77,197National $77,457

Median federal debt$24,683National $23,250

Debt-to-earnings44%National 44%

All 21 programs, ranked

Each figure is the median for the program's graduates. Programs that don't report a figure are listed last when you sort by it.

#	School	Year 1 pay	Year 5 pay	Debt	Debt to pay
1	Miami UniversityOxford · public	$71,203	$100,641	$22,000	31%
2	Case WesternCleveland · private nonprofit	$65,784	$92,413	$26,048	40%
3	Ohio StateColumbus · public	$65,181	$93,666	$20,500	31%
4	University of DaytonDayton · private nonprofit	$64,371	$86,861	$22,750	35%
5	Franklin UniversityColumbus · private nonprofit	$61,645	$69,139	$33,949	55%
6	Cedarville UniversityCedarville · private nonprofit	$60,880	Not reported	$16,750	28%
7	Ohio UniversityAthens · public	$59,305	$86,951	$25,000	42%
8	University of CincinnatiCincinnati · public	$59,067	$80,523	$21,549	36%
9	Xavier UniversityCincinnati · private nonprofit	$58,513	$86,245	$27,000	46%
10	University of AkronAkron · public	$55,946	$66,385	$23,900	43%
11	John Carroll UniversityUniversity Heights · private nonprofit	$55,590	$82,066	$27,000	49%
12	Otterbein UniversityWesterville · private nonprofit	$55,364	Not reported	$25,600	46%
13	Ashland UniversityAshland · private nonprofit	$54,880	$73,422	Not reported	Not reported
14	Bowling Green StateBowling Green · public	$53,707	$76,229	$25,000	47%
15	Wright StateDayton · public	$52,534	$71,407	$18,903	36%
16	University of Mount UnionAlliance · private nonprofit	$51,503	$82,560	$27,000	52%
17	Baldwin Wallace UniversityBerea · private nonprofit	$51,347	$77,197	$27,000	53%
18	Kent StateKent · public	$51,153	$74,512	$25,000	49%
19	Cleveland StateCleveland · public	$49,425	$76,073	$24,365	49%
20	University of ToledoToledo · public	$49,414	$72,239	$18,500	37%
21	Youngstown StateYoungstown · public	$44,973	$61,650	$21,935	49%

Ashland University reports pay but not debt, so it is ranked only by pay.

Debt and first-year pay at every Ohio finance program

Programs in the upper left give graduates higher pay for less debt. Dashed lines mark the Ohio medians.

Hover over or tap a dot to see the school. Only the 20 programs that report both earnings and debt are shown.

Quick picks

Highest first-year pay

Lowest median debt

Lowest debt for the pay

"Debt for the pay" is median debt divided by first-year pay. Only programs that report both figures are included.

Careers this field leads to

These are the jobs that the federal crosswalk from fields of study to occupations links to finance, largest first. Pay is the median across all experience levels.

General and Operations Managers

$97,700

Median pay in Ohio. 153,160 people work in this job in Ohio. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 5% from 2025 to 2035, with about 285,000 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree, plus 5 years or more of related work experience.

Bottom 10%: $47,400Top 10%: $216,360

Financial Managers

$140,870

Median pay in Ohio. 27,360 people work in this job in Ohio. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 10% from 2025 to 2035, with about 65,600 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree, plus 5 years or more of related work experience.

Bottom 10%: $82,190Top 10%: $273,760

Securities, Commodities, and Financial Services Sales Agents

$73,300

Median pay in Ohio. 13,520 people work in this job in Ohio. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 1% from 2025 to 2035, with about 35,100 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.

Bottom 10%: $47,540Top 10%: $168,100

Financial and Investment Analysts

$94,280

Median pay in Ohio. 9,760 people work in this job in Ohio. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 7% from 2025 to 2035, with about 24,700 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.

Bottom 10%: $57,870Top 10%: $142,420

Common questions

Miami University in Oxford reports the highest median first-year pay, $71,203. Its median federal debt is $22,000.

Finance (Bachelor's) programs in the US, ranked407 programs by pay and debt

About this data

Earnings and debt only include students who received federal financial aid, and earnings only count graduates who were working and not enrolled in more school.
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 Ohio rankings when their main campus is in another state.
Medians are across the finance bachelor's programs that report each figure, so the counts differ by figure. Scorecard figures describe graduating classes from several years ago. BLS wages are from May 2025.

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
NCES, CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk, and IPEDS institution directory, 2024