What does each major actually pay at this college?

Federal Scorecard data on 26,606 bachelor's programs across 1,351 colleges. Median earnings 4 years after graduation, debt at exit, cohort size. Pick multiple colleges or majors to compare side-by-side.

Lifetime earnings, the macro picture

Before you pick a school or major, the bigger lever: how much education you get. Median lifetime earnings rise sharply at each rung — bachelor's earns ~75% more than HS, master's adds another 14%, and professional degrees (MD, JD, MBA, etc.) more than double the bachelor's median. Numbers below are national medians, full-time year-round, 40-yr career.

Median lifetime earnings by education level

Education level Median annual
(current $)		 Lifetime
(40-yr, $millions)		 Note
HS diploma only $40,000 $1.6M BLS 2024 median wage, HS-only working adults.
Some college, no degree $46,000 $1.9M
Associate's degree $50,000 $2.0M
Bachelor's degree $72,000 $2.8M 80% earnings premium over HS-only.
Master's degree $86,000 $3.2M 19% premium over bachelor's.
Doctoral (PhD/EdD) $109,000 $4.0M Excludes professional degrees below.
Professional degree $130,000 $4.7M Combined avg across MD / JD / DDS / DVM / DPT / PharmD.

Professional degrees — median annual + lifetime estimate

Professional degrees (MD, JD, MBA, etc.) are NOT in the ladder above — they're listed here separately because the variance between specialties is huge. A pediatrician and a neurosurgeon both hold an MD; their lifetime earnings can differ by 4×.

Degree Median annual Specialty high Lifetime est.
($millions)		 Note
MD (Physicians & Surgeons) $239,200 $500,000 $11.0M Median; surgical specialties exceed $500k. MD takes 8-10 yrs post-bachelor.
DDS / DMD (Dentists) $170,910 $250,000 $7.4M Specialists (orthodontists, oral surgeons) earn $250k+.
JD (Lawyers) $145,760 $400,000 $6.3M Big Law associates start $215k+; public-interest median much lower.
MBA (top-25, mid-career) $195,000 $350,000 $6.5M Top-25 program grads. Public-non-flagship MBAs run lower.
PharmD (Pharmacists) $136,030 $160,000 $5.7M
DVM (Veterinarians) $119,100 $160,000 $5.0M Note: vet school debt averages $200k+ — payback can be slow.
DPT (Physical Therapists) $99,710 $125,000 $4.2M
DO (Osteopathic Medicine) $225,000 $480,000 $10.4M Comparable to MD; same residency match pool.
DPM (Podiatrists) $158,810 $220,000 $6.8M

Sources. Lifetime earnings: Georgetown CEW, "The College Payoff" (2021). Annual median earnings: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook (2024). Lifetime estimates for professional degrees assume a 40-year career at the median; they're approximations, not predictions. The College Payoff numbers are full-time year-round; if you take career breaks or reduce hours the lifetime figure shrinks proportionally. Big caveat: these are medians, not outcomes you can count on. The variance inside each row is enormous (a JD at Big Law vs public defender; an MBA at Goldman vs at a mid-sized regional bank). Look at the program-level data in the tabs below for the spread.

1,351 colleges with bachelor's program-level outcomes data. With one college picked you see its top majors; with 2+ you see them side-by-side.

How to read these numbers

  • Earnings 4 yrs after entry reflects what federal-aid-receiving grads from this program earn 4 years after entering the workforce. Treasury wage records.
  • Debt at exit is the median federal loan debt for completers who borrowed — students who paid cash aren't counted, so debt at low-income colleges can look low because most students take aid.
  • Suppression: programs with fewer than ~30 completers in the federal cohort show em-dashes (privacy-protected). Many small majors at small schools.
  • Major≠Career. An English major who went on to law school shows post-law-school earnings; the "English" pay number reflects that mix. PP-FOS measures completers' earnings, not "what people who studied X earn."
  • One year of data. Source vintage: College Scorecard 20260323. Schools and programs change year to year — confirm with the school before drawing conclusions about an individual program.

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