COMMUNITY COLLEGE RESEARCH INITIATIVES - NEW BACCALAUREATE SERIES - Washington Bachelor’s of Applied Science Graduate Employment and Earnings Outcomes - Data Note 7 - June 2020

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Jacob

Study examining employment and earnings of Washington Bachelor’s of Applied Science (BAS) graduates across business, computer and information sciences, healthcare, and visual and performing arts. Results from two related studies report high employment match rates and rising annualized earnings over time for BAS graduates in all four fields, with healthcare graduates earning the highest and most consistently lucrative wages. Earnings patterns vary by gender and race: female graduates generally lag except in computer and information sciences, while race-related outcomes show notable exceptions across programs, supporting ongoing demographic tracking.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages10

Reading Time25 min

AccessFree to download

Background

BAS degree expansion in Washington

Prior Research on Employment and Earnings

Labor-market questions and UI wage data match

COMMUNITY COLLEGE RESEARCH INITIATIVES NEW BACCALAUREATE SERIES Washington Bachelor’s of Applied Science Graduate Employment and Earnings Outcomes Elizabeth Apple Meza and Debra D. Bragg DATA NOTE 7 | JUNE 2020 This study examines the employment and earnings of Washington Bachelor’s of Applied Science (BAS) graduates in business, computer and information sciences, healthcare, and visual and performing arts. Complimenting research by Kaikkonen (2020), we report results of two studies that find high employment match rates and increasing annualized earnings over time for BAS graduates of all four programs. Healthcare graduates receive the highest and most consistently lucrative wages. However, disaggregation of earnings for BAS graduates by gender and race reveals mixed results. Female BAS graduates lag behind male BAS graduates on annualized earnings, often by large margins. The one exception is computer and information sciences where female BAS graduates close the earnings gap and surpass their male counterparts one year after graduation. With respect to race, we find white students tend to garner higher earnings than racially minoritized groups, but there are exceptions. Latinx and Native American/Alaska Native business graduates have comparable annualized earnings to White and Asian groups, and African American BAS healthcare graduates start out with the lowest annualized earnings of any group but exceed Whites at three years post-graduation ($74,600 for African Americans compared to $72,000 for Whites) and significantly narrow the wage gap with Asians who earn $77,600. As more BAS students graduate and enter the workforce it is important to continue to track employment and earnings to gain an even fuller and more nuanced understanding of these critical outcomes by student demographics. BACKGROUND Bachelor’s of Applied Science (BAS) degrees have grown substantially since the Washington state legislature passed the Expanding Access to Baccalaureate Degrees Bill in 2005 that authorized the State Board of Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) to initiate pilot programs in a select group of community and technical colleges. In 2010 the state legislature passed another bill authorizing the 2010 System Design Plan in the Washington state Senate Bill, titled Expanding the Higher Education System Upon Proven Demand, that allowed the SBCTC to remove the pilot status for BAS degrees. Then in 2012, the state legislature awarded the SBCTC program approval authority for all BAS degrees conferred by community and technical colleges (fora fuller history of BAS degrees in Washington, see: [https://](https://)[ ](https://)[www.sbctc.edu/colleges-staff/programs-services/applied](www.sbctc.edu/colleges-staff/programs-services/applied)baccalaureates/) . Washington is one of 23 states to authorize community colleges to confer bachelor’s degrees, and nearly all these degrees take the form of the BAS. The upper-division curriculum associated with BAS degrees tend to build on existing professional-technical associates degrees, though some new degree programs are created to accommodate student needs to access and complete BAS degrees that are responsive to employer demand. To date, Washington has approved BAS programs in 29 of its 34 community and technical colleges, and additional colleges are preparing proposals according to the latest BAS program inventory from the SBCTC (Jamilyn Penn, personal communication, February 18, 2020) . Looking at earlier research on Washington BAS degrees, BAS enrollments and completions are rising across the state. The SBCTC (2020) reports over 3,100 full-time equivalent [uw. edu/cc ri](uw. edu/cc ri) 1 NEW BACCALAUREATE SERIES | Washington Bachelor’s of Applied Science Graduate Employment and Earnings Outcomes (FTE) enrollments in the 2017-2018 academic year, and a cumulative total of 3,333 graduates from Fall 2009 through Spring 2018. Enrollments are largest in business, healthcare, and co

FAQs

What outcomes does the study focus on for Washington BAS graduates?

The study examines employment and earnings outcomes, including employment match rates and how annualized earnings change over time after graduation.

Which BAS program field shows the highest and most consistently lucrative wages?

Healthcare graduates receive the highest and most consistently lucrative wages in the reported findings.

How do earnings results differ by gender and race?

Female graduates typically earn less than male graduates on an annualized basis, except in computer and information sciences where female graduates close the gap and surpass male counterparts one year after graduation. By race, white students generally earn more, but several exceptions appear, including outcomes for Latinx and Native American/Alaska Native business graduates and African American BAS healthcare graduates improving over time.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Jacob