College profile
Bowie State University
MD · Public · Large suburb · 6,245 applicants 2023
A parent's read
- The major moves the money more than the admit letter. Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing grads from here earn about $103,814 four years out; design and applied arts grads about $33,841 — a 3.1× spread on the same diploma. Have the major conversation before you deposit, not after.
- The payoff holds even at full price: roughly 5× over a decade. With no aid at all — the full in-state ~$25,220/yr — a decade of median earnings (~$54,537/yr) still runs about 5× the four-year cost. This payoff doesn't depend on qualifying for anything. (Out-of-state costs more.)
- Worth asking: do students finish? Only 38% graduate within six years here — the standard federal measure. Ask what drives that: course availability, transfers out, students working long hours. Not finishing is the costliest outcome there is.
Composed from this page's data — every claim is backed by a number in the sections below.
Parent/student verdict
AccessibleAccessible for most applicants. Affordable — net price averages ~$19,298/yr among aid recipients. Major value play for in-state residents.
Best for
- In-state residents (tuition ~$9,218 — major value play)
The reality
- You'd be near the bottom of their admitted class if: SAT below 796 (test bands are the school's own; the GPA floor is our estimate, not a published figure)
Verdict is composed from this college's structured data (admit rate, SAT bands, net price with aid and at full price, Carnegie classification, scholarship grids) using transparent rule thresholds — not a chat-bot's opinion.
What are your child's odds here?
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Weighted is the higher GPA, with honors/AP credit in it — pick whichever your school reports. PSAT scores work in the SAT box.
Institutional snapshot
What kind of college is this?
1% of enrolled first-years submitted an SAT score — this range describes students who submitted, not the whole class.
Source: federal IPEDS Admissions 2023 for scores + admit rate; federal College Scorecard (20260606 vintage) for earnings + outcomes. SAT/ACT bands are the 25th–75th percentile of enrolled submitters.
Outcomes & cost
What graduates actually earn, finish, and owe.
Federal College Scorecard data. Earnings are median annual income measured years after entering. Debt is for federal-aid borrowers only (cash-pay students aren't counted).
The real cost
What Bowie State University actually costs
Which side your family lands on isn't set by any national income line — it's set by Bowie State University's own aid decision: the gap between its price and your family's finances.
Your odds + estimated cost across your whole college list, side by side.
The payoffTen years of typical graduate pay minus four years of cost — how many dollars ahead a typical graduate runs by year ten. Check both the full-price and with-aid versions to see which applies to you; median pay reflects who a college admits and what they study as much as the college itself., both ways
+$444K ahead at full price +$468K with aidSource: College Scorecard (average net price among Title IV first-time, full-time undergraduates who received aid) and each college's published cost of attendance. We don't show the federal net-price-by-income brackets: their categories were fixed in 2008 and never adjusted, and none of the averages is your family's own number — the full story. Payoff = (10-yr median earnings × 10) − (4 years of cost), in dollars — how far ahead a typical graduate runs by year ten; medians travel with the students a college admits and the majors they choose as much as with the college itself. Full price is the published cost of attendance, largely in-state for publics; earnings are 10 years after enrollment, all majors combined.
What students study here
Most popular majors at Bowie State University
Top 5 fields of study by bachelor's degrees awarded (most recent IPEDS Completions). Use this to see what Bowie State University actually graduates — not just what it markets.
What those majors earn here
Median earnings 4 years after entry, by major — Bowie State University's own graduates, not national averages.
| Major (CIP) | 4-yr earnings |
|---|---|
| Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing. | $103,814 |
| Computer and Information Sciences and Support Services, Other. | $97,030 |
| Business Administration, Management and Operations. | $70,427 |
| History. | $68,077 |
| Criminal Justice and Corrections. | $67,303 |
| Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Levels and Methods. | $60,746 |
| Biology, General. | $59,995 |
| Social Work. | $57,224 |
| Sociology. | $57,075 |
| Audiovisual Communications Technologies/Technicians. | $56,818 |
Sources: IPEDS Completions (C2023_a; bachelor's-level first majors, 2-digit CIP family — share is of the top 5 only) · College Scorecard program-level outcomes (PP-FOS). Full college-vs-major comparison: /college-outcomes →
AI program signal
AI + computing education at Bowie State University
Full multi-lens comparison: /ai-colleges →
Alternatives to Bowie State University
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Feeder high schools
Which high schools send graduates to Bowie State University?
3 high schools publish a numbered matriculation list — where their graduates actually enrolled, counted, in the school's own School Profile — and name Bowie State University on it. Between them they printed 3 enrolled graduates. Ranked by graduates per class year enrolling at Bowie State University, from each school's own published list: the number that school printed, divided by the class years its list covers. The published total and the school's own years label are shown beside every school, so a one-year list and a five-year list can sit on the same page. A list whose class years we cannot read is not divided by a guess — it is listed below with its total instead.
All 3 feeder schools, ranked →
Counted from each school's own published document, linked on that school's page. A high school that is not here does not publish a numbered list we could read — that is all absence means, and it says nothing about its graduates. Where a school publishes both, the two lists are shown separately: an acceptances list is not a list of enrollments, and the two are never added together.
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At a glance
JSON · Using this page with an AI assistantBowie State University is a public four-year college in MD. It admitted 84% of applicants (6,245 applied, 2023). Test policy: Test-optional.
Middle 50% of enrolled first-years who submitted that test: SAT 796–1083. 1% of enrolled first-years submitted an SAT score — this range describes students who submitted, not the whole class.
Cost: about $19,298 a year on average with aid, $25,220 a year at full price for in-state students.
Median earnings ten years after entry: $54,537 a year. Payoff, meaning ten years of that pay minus four years of cost: $468,178 ahead with aid, $444,490 ahead at full price.
Highest median earnings four years after the degree, by program: Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing ($103,814); Computer and Information Sciences and Support Services, Other ($97,030); Business Administration, Management and Operations ($70,427).
High schools that publish a numbered matriculation list and name Bowie State University: 3, 3 enrolled students between them — ranked by graduates per class year, most often Bullis School (1.0 per class year, 1 over 1 class year, Class of 2026); Virginia Episcopal School (1.0 per class year, 1 over 1 class year, Class of 2024); Gilman School (0.2 per class year, 1 over 5 class years, classes of 2020-2024). Each figure is the number that school printed divided by the class years its own list covers; the totals and years are shown. These are the schools that publish such a list, not every school that sends students; full list: https://highschoolreach.com/leaderboards/feeder-schools/bowie-state-university.
Machine-readable version of this page: https://highschoolreach.com/colleges/bowie-state-university.json