College Scorecard · cost, debt & earnings

Otterbein University

Westerville, OH · Private nonprofit · Bachelor-granting · 2,157 undergrads · 85% admitted

Do students finish?

68% complete

Most students who start here finish.

What does it cost?

$48,321/yr net

Average annual price after grants & scholarships. ~$193,284 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.

$53,313 median, 10 yrs after entry

25th pct $36,344 median $53,313 75th pct $77,271

76% 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.

11 Bachelor's programs · $22,912 to $59,815 (1 yr out)

MajorPay · 1yr outMedian debt

Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing.Bachelor's $59,815 $27,000

Marketing.Bachelor's $42,237 —

Business Administration, Management and Operations.Bachelor's $38,332 $26,000

Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Levels and Methods.Bachelor's $34,439 $21,025

Sports, Kinesiology, and Physical Education/Fitness.Bachelor's $33,872 $25,000

Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied Communication.Bachelor's $32,792 $20,500

Communication and Media Studies.Bachelor's $30,547 $18,500

Psychology, General.Bachelor's $30,081 $25,000

Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Subject Areas.Bachelor's $29,416 —

Wildlife and Wildlands Science and Management.Bachelor's $26,871 $25,850

Drama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft.Bachelor's $22,912 $26,822

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

$20,500

≈ 39% 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 (12 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