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Program ranking · CIP 51.06 bachelor's · College Scorecard · Mar-Jul 2026 retrievals

Best Colleges for Dental Hygiene

Using U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard field-of-study data retrieved March-July 2026, these colleges rank highest on median earnings for Dental Hygiene (CIP 51.06) bachelor's completers. Rankings use earnings only - not prestige, selectivity, or editorial judgment - and require at least 25 completers so tiny suppressed cohorts do not dominate the list.

$86,150
Highest dental hygiene earnings
45
Colleges ranked
$37,694
#45 cutoff

The list in one line

Every college on this list reports at least $37,694 median earnings for Dental Hygiene bachelor's (CIP 51.06) completers. University of the Pacific leads at $86,150.

According to the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard.

$86,150
#1 - University of the
$37,694
#45 - the cutoff to make this list
25+
completers required per school
101
US schools offering this CIP

Earnings are field-of-study medians for federally aided completers who were working and not enrolled; see methodology for horizon and lag details.

Top 15 dental hygiene programs by median completer earnings

Dental Hygiene bachelor's (CIP 51.06) · higher is higher early-career pay

median earnings

What this shows Dental-support bachelor's medians concentrate where clinical hygiene pathways exist - compare credential level and debt before treating pay as program quality.

Source U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard Field of Study As of Mar-Jul 2026 retrievals

The full top 45

# School Name StateMedian EarningsMedian DebtCompleters
1 University of the Pacific CA $86,150 - 25
2 West Coast University-Anaheim-Orange County CA $85,797 $33,707 62
3 Lake Washington Institute of Technology WA $85,286 $23,000 26
4 Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences MA $83,253 $25,000 70
5 Foothill College CA $82,028 $11,000 76
6 Loma Linda University CA $79,207 $15,000 35
7 Pacific University OR $78,641 $22,500 33
8 Oregon Institute of Technology OR $78,089 $20,750 58
9 University of Minnesota-Twin Cities MN $76,078 $17,394 28
10 Eastern Washington University WA $75,533 $23,604 42
11 University of Bridgeport CT $74,822 $25,121 36
12 University of New England ME $74,504 $26,645 54
13 Herzing University-Minneapolis MN $73,741 $28,823 34
14 University of New Haven CT $73,231 $23,281 27
15 Minnesota State University-Mankato MN $72,882 $21,355 59
16 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill NC $72,567 $11,000 26
17 Farmingdale State College NY $70,853 - 25
18 Texas A&M University-College Station TX $70,132 $15,000 29
19 Old Dominion University VA $69,732 $18,000 74
20 Northern Arizona University AZ $68,917 $20,567 55
21 Southern Illinois University-Carbondale IL $68,609 $21,500 26
22 University of South Dakota SD $68,556 $26,000 37
23 University of Oklahoma-Health Sciences Center OK $68,018 $15,000 47
24 Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center-New Orleans LA $67,665 $15,000 37
25 University of New Mexico-Main Campus NM $67,561 $20,000 33
26 Texas Woman's University TX $66,034 $14,049 65
27 Ohio State University-Main Campus OH $65,920 $20,000 40
28 University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences AR $65,708 $20,000 31
29 East Tennessee State University TN $65,649 $14,000 29
30 The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston TX $64,980 $18,469 25
31 Pennsylvania College of Technology PA $64,919 $23,983 26
32 University of Missouri-Kansas City MO $64,838 $18,750 30
33 Georgia Highlands College GA $64,541 - 26
34 Clayton State University GA $63,402 $18,375 28
35 University of Detroit Mercy MI $63,364 $22,032 25
36 Idaho State University ID $62,783 $18,000 28
37 University of Louisville KY $62,595 $23,000 28
38 University of Louisiana at Monroe LA $62,089 $15,000 28
39 Wichita State University KS $61,982 $19,000 59
40 The University of Tennessee Health Science Center TN $61,981 $15,000 27
41 West Liberty University WV $61,801 $25,481 31
42 Augusta University GA $61,584 $12,687 28
43 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor MI $59,402 $17,875 38
44 Careers Unlimited UT $44,722 $28,896 58
45 Weber State University UT $37,694 $17,965 30

About This Ranking

Schools are ranked by College Scorecard field-of-study median earnings for Dental Hygiene (CIP 51.06) bachelor's completers. Only operating schools with at least 25 completers and a published median are included. Ties break toward larger completer cohorts. For the full program profile - including every reporting school and national distribution - see Dental Hygiene (bachelor's). Methodology lives on our methodology page.

Caveats and limitations

"Best" here means highest reported median earnings for the stated CIP scope - not teaching quality, licensure pass rates, clinical placement strength, or fit for any one student. College Scorecard publishes dental-hygiene cohorts inside Dental Support Services and Allied Professions (CIP 51.06) - this list ranks that bachelor's CIP, the published proxy for "dental hygiene" demand. Certificate and associate dental-support ladders often dominate the field and are not mixed into this bachelor's ranking.

Figures cover federally aided completers only, use Treasury-linked earnings, and describe a lagged cohort. Regional pay scales and graduate-school paths both move the median without proving a causal school effect.

This ranking is for informational purposes only and does not constitute academic or career advice. Earnings do not predict any individual graduate's outcome.

Every figure on PlainCollege is rendered directly from the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard data, no number is typed in by an editor. Rankings are computed directly from College Scorecard field-of-study data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error on this page. Review the public data changelog. Data current as of Mar-Jul 2026 retrievals.