College Scorecard · cost, debt & earnings

Ottawa University-Ottawa

Ottawa, KS · Private nonprofit · Bachelor-granting · 870 undergrads · 83% admitted

Weigh this carefully before borrowing

Only 28% of students here finish, and the loans are owed whether or not you graduate (students who withdrew here carry a median of $9,500 in federal debt). Compare the cost and completion against a community college or in-state public university before you sign.

Do students finish?

28% complete

Most students who start here do not finish — and the debt is owed whether or not you graduate.

What does it cost?

$51,856/yr net

Average annual price after grants & scholarships. ~$207,424 over four years if you finish on time.

What former students go on to earn

The middle 50% of students who received federal aid, measured 10 years after they entered (an earlier entering class — not a guarantee, and not limited to those who graduated). Earnings vary enormously by field of study.

$55,552 median, 10 yrs after entry

25th pct $35,894 median $55,552 75th pct $79,726

75% earn more than a typical high-school graduate (the dashed line above, $28,000 — a fixed, somewhat dated federal benchmark) ten years on.

Your major matters more than your school

The school-wide figure above blends every major together — but pay varies enormously by program. Pick a degree level (and search your major) to compare like-for-like.

Read these on their own terms. Program pay is measured 1 year after completing the program (early career, graduates only) — not the same as the school-wide number above, which is 10 years after a student first enrolled. Don't compare a program figure to the school figure; use the programs to compare majors to each other.

5 Bachelor's programs · $32,184 to $58,931 (1 yr out)

MajorPay · 1yr outMedian debt

Health and Medical Administrative Services.Bachelor's $58,931 $20,738

Accounting and Related Services.Bachelor's $47,803 $20,696

Human Services, General.Bachelor's $36,858 $24,300

Business Administration, Management and Operations.Bachelor's $34,341 $20,000

Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Levels and Methods.Bachelor's $32,184 $22,000

The Dept. of Education omits programs with too few graduates (to protect privacy), so not every major appears. Pay is a median for federally-aided graduates. Full program detail on the official Scorecard.

Typical federal loan debt

$12,500

≈ 23% of one year's typical earnings here

This counts federal student loans only — not private loans, Parent PLUS loans, or family savings, so the true cost of borrowing is usually higher. And because students who drop out borrow less, a school where many students don't finish can show a deceptively low debt figure — read it next to the completion rate above.

What these numbers are — and are not

Every figure here is an institution-wide median from the U.S. Dept. of Education College Scorecard. It is not a prediction of what you would earn or owe — a computer-science and a fine-arts graduate of the same school can earn wildly different amounts, and your field of study matters more than your school. It is not a figure for any one program, not proof the school caused the outcome (selective schools admit students who would earn more anyway), and not a "best college" ranking. Earnings and debt cover federally-aided students.

→ The number that actually answers "worth it" is earnings by major — see the by-major breakdown above (8 programs at this school).

Also available: structured data (JSON-LD) · plain text · JSON. Source: U.S. Dept. of Education College Scorecard (2026-06-10 release). · school website