As of the 2023/24 academic year, graduates from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) had a starting salary of 110,200 U.S. dollars, and a mid-career salary of 196,900 U.S. dollars. Top universities in the United States One of the top universities in the United States, Harvey Mudd College, is located in Claremont, California. Not only do graduates earn a high salaries after graduation, they also pay the most. In the academic year of 2020-2021, Harvey Mudd College was one of the most expensive school by total annual cost. The best university in the United States in 2021 belonged to the University of California, Berkeley. The Ivy League The Ivy League is a group of eight private universities in the Northeastern United States. It is not only a collegiate athletic conference, but also a group of highly respected academic institutions. They are usually regarded as the best eight universities in the United States and the world. They are extremely selective with their admissions process. However, these universities are extremely expensive to attend. Despite the high price tag, students who graduate from Princeton University have the highest early career salary out of all Ivy League attendees in 2021. This is compared to the overall expected starting salaries of recent college graduates across the United States, which was less than 35,000 U.S. dollars.

The top-ranked university in the United States in 2024 according to Forbes was Princeton University in New Jersey. Students at Princeton graduate with an average debt of 7,559 U.S. dollars, but have a median 10-year salary of 189,400 U.S. dollars. The Forbes rankings are based on several categories, including alumni salary, student debt, graduation rate, return on investment, retention rate, and academic success.

Graph and download economic data for Income Before Taxes: Wages and Salaries by Highest Education: Less Than College Graduate: High School Graduate (CXU900000LB1404M) from 2012 to 2023 about no college, secondary schooling, secondary, salaries, tax, education, wages, income, and USA.

German law graduates holding a doctorate degree can currently expect the ******* average gross starting salary in the country when they enter the job market. Other degrees with good earning prospects include medicine, computer science (also with a doctorate degree), and industrial engineering. In comparison, those who studied graphics/design, humanities and social sciences are at the ****** of the starting salary food chain. Law courses among most attended Law, economics and social sciences were the subject groups seeing the ******* student numbers in German universities, totaling over *** million in 2023/2024. Engineering and mathematics rounded up the top three. German universities offer a variety of internationally recognized degrees, the Bachelor being the most frequently taken type of final exam. Slow yearly salary increase Among selected countries in the European Union, Germany ranks ***** in terms of average annual wages. All the same, when studying the change in average annual pay specifically in Germany during the last decade, a slow, but steady increase is visible year after year, until the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic hit in 2020. Since then, the average wage has been decreasing and in 2023 was around the same level as in 2017.

Graph and download economic data for Employed full time: Median usual weekly nominal earnings (second quartile): Wage and salary workers: High School graduates, no college: 25 years and over (LEU0252917300A) from 1979 to 2024 about no college, second quartile, secondary schooling, secondary, 25 years +, full-time, salaries, workers, earnings, education, wages, median, employment, and USA.

See notice below about this dataset

This dataset provides the average annual earnings by industry per district.

Wage records are obtained from the Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance (DUA) using a secure, anonymized matching process with limitations. For details on the process and suppression rules, please visit the Employment and Earnings of High School Graduates dashboard.

This dataset is one of three containing the same data that is also published in the Employment and Earnings of High School Graduates dashboard: Average Earnings by Student Group Average Earnings by Industry College and Career Outcomes

List of Industries

• 00 - All Students
• 11 - Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting
• 21 - Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction
• 22 - Utilities
• 23 - Construction
• 31 - Manufacturing
• 42 - Wholesale Trade
• 44 - Retail Trade
• 48 - Transportation and Warehousing
• 51 - Information
• 52 - Finance and Insurance
• 53 - Real Estate and Rental and Leasing
• 54 - Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
• 55 - Management of Companies and Enterprises
• 56 - Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services
• 61 - Educational Services
• 62 - Health Care and Social Assistance
• 71 - Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation
• 72 - Accommodation and Food Services
• 81 - Other Services (except Public Administration)
• 92 - Public Administration
• 0 - No Industry Reported

The data link between high school graduates and future earnings makes it possible to follow students beyond high school and college into the workforce, enabling long-term evaluation of educational programs using workforce outcomes.

While DESE has published these data in the past, as of June 2025 we are temporarily pausing updates due to an issue conducting the link that was brought to our attention in 2023 by a team of researchers. The issue impacts the earnings information for students who never attended a postsecondary institution or who only attended private or out-of-state colleges or universities, beginning with the 2017 high school graduation cohort, with growing impact in each successive high school graduation cohort.

The issue does not impact the earnings information for students who attended a Massachusetts public institution of higher education, and earnings data for those students will continue to be updated.

Once a solution is found, the past cohorts of data with low match rates will be updated. DESE and partner agencies are exploring linking strategies to maximize the utility of the information.

More detailed information can be found in the attached memo provided by the research team from the Annenberg Institute. We thank them for calling this issue to our attention.

In 2022, Darden School of Business in Charlottesville, Virginia was ranked as the 14th best business school in the United States, with an average student debt of 114,043 U.S. dollars and average starting salary and sign-on bonus of 186,974 U.S. dollars for MBA graduates. The number one ranked business school, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, had a average MBA grad starting salary of 186,279 U.S. dollars but did not report student debt figures for 2022. Only 11 out of the 25 top ranked business schools in the U.S. reported their average student debt in that year.

In 2022, the median starting salary for MBA graduates of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, a leading business school in the United States, was 175,000 U.S. dollars. This figure was the same for MBA graduates of the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business and Stanford's Graduate School of Business, which were also ranked within the top three U.S. business schools in that year.

Graph and download economic data for Employed full time: Median usual weekly nominal earnings (second quartile): Wage and salary workers: High School graduates, no college: 25 years and over: Black or African American: Men (LEU0252938700A) from 2000 to 2024 about no college, second quartile, secondary schooling, African-American, secondary, 25 years +, full-time, males, salaries, workers, earnings, education, wages, median, employment, and USA.

In 2025, the average salary of a graduate from the Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management in China with low work experience was ******* U.S. dollars (once adjusted for purchasing power parity). This was the highest in the world, ahead of students from the Shanghai Institute of Finance at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and HEC Paris. Salaries of MBA graduates The salaries of business school MBA graduates worldwide stood at ***********. dollars in 2024, while graduates who held a bachelor’s degree could expect a starting salary of ****** U.S. dollars. The largest university worldwide is located in Africa The university with the highest number of students in the world is found in Nigeria. Ambrose Alli University has more than ******* registered students. Tribhuvan University in Nepal and Payame Noor University in Iran round up the top three.

This dataset contains information about different colleges and their programs. Here is a breakdown of the columns in the dataset:

college_name: The name of the college or institution. college_link: The URL link to the college's website or relevant information source. duration: The duration of the program offered by the college, typically in years. fees: The fees or cost of the program in Indian Rupees (INR). rank: The ranking of the college or program (if available). placement: Placement-related information, such as the average and highest salary offered to graduates. c_type: The type of the college, which could indicate whether it is autonomous or affiliated with a university. program: The program or degree offered by the college, such as Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech).

Over the past five years, for-profit universities have faced mounting headwinds amid regulatory tightening, inflation and negative public perception. While data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reports that overall postsecondary enrollment grew by just 0.5% from 2020 to 2025, enrollment at for-profit institutions shrank by 4.1%. Ballooning student debt and rising tuition, made worse by inflation in 2022 and 2023, have driven many recent graduates and adult learners to second-guess the value of higher education, especially degrees from for-profit schools with poor graduate earnings. Government regulations added further strain as the Biden administration's 2024 reinstatement of gainful employment rules once again linked access to federal funding to graduate debt-to-income ratios. At the same time, for-profit schools battled declining revenue as affordable nonprofit and vocational programs drew away budget-conscious students. Industry revenue has dropped at a CAGR of 0.5% to an estimated $13.6 billion over the five years through 2025. A faltering reputation has played a major role in the industry's decline. According to Federal Student Aid data, for-profit universities are repeatedly criticized for low graduation rates, weak graduate earnings and high student loan default rates—the highest across any demographic. Allegations of predatory practices remain in the headlines, exemplified by Walden University's $28.5 million lawsuit settlement in 2024. Although these institutions offer flexible scheduling and lower tuition rates that appeal to low-income and nontraditional students, the public remains wary. Studies indicate that most programs with no positive return on investment are at for-profit colleges. Meanwhile, stricter government scrutiny and the widespread availability of earnings and debt data have made poor outcomes highly visible, solidifying the negative perception. Many for-profit universities have shuttered, though some have managed to retain profit by closing physical locations. For-profit universities will continue facing a decline over the next five years. IBISWorld expects for-profit university enrollment to drop at an annualized 1.1% through 2030, outpaced by modest growth at nonprofit and vocational schools, where graduates see better employment outcomes. Uncertainty in regulations, including the possible repeal of the 90/10 rule, adds more volatility, while the lack of broad student loan forgiveness will likely suppress affordability and demand. As students and job seekers prioritize educational outcomes and cost, one in seven for-profit universities is expected to close by 2030. For-profit universities' revenue is set to sink at a CAGR of 0.3% to an estimated $13.4 billion through the next five years.

College Majors and their Graduates

Job Opportunities, Salaries and Gender Disparities

By FiveThirtyEight [source]

About this dataset

This repository contains a comprehensive selection of lavish data and processing scripts behind the articles, graphics, and interactive experiences generated by FiveThirtyEight. With this dataset, you'll have the power to explore college programs and their graduates like never before and create stories of your own! Whether you use it to check our work or craft your own powerful visuals, we would absolutely love to know if you found it useful. Under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License and MIT License respectively, our data is available for anyone who chooses to use it. Let us know how our resources turned out at

More Datasets

For more datasets, click here.

Featured Notebooks

• 🚨 Your notebook can be here! 🚨!

Research Ideas

• Create an interactive comparison tool for researching college majors and their earning potential, so that prospective students can make informed decisions about what to study.
• Analyze the proportions of male and female graduates across different majors to uncover gender disparities in higher education.
• Explore the correlations between major categories, average salaries earned by graduates from specific major categories, unemployment rates for those with specific majors and more – to identify trends in job opportunities for certain specialties of study

Acknowledgements

If you use this dataset in your research, please credit the original authors. Data Source

License

License: CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) - Public Domain Dedication No Copyright - You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. See Other Information.

Columns

File: majors-list.csv | Column name | Description | |:-------------------|:----------------------------------------------------| | FOD1P | First-level division of the field of study (String) | | Major | The specific major of the field of study (String) | | Major_Category | The broader category of the field of study (String) |

File: recent-grads.csv | Column name | Description | |:-------------------------|:-------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Major | The specific major of the field of study (String) | | Rank | The rank of the major in terms of popularity (Integer) | | Major_code | The code associated with the major (Integer) | | Major_category | The category of the major (String) | | Total | The total number of students in the major (Integer) | | Sample_size | The sample size of the major (Integer) | | Men | The number of male students in the major (Integer) | | Women | The number of female students in the major (Integer) | | ShareWomen | The percentage of female students in the major (Float) | | Employed | The number of employed graduates from the major (Integer) | | Full_time | The number of full-time employed graduates from the major (Integer) | | Part_time | The number of part-time employed graduates from the major (Integer) | | Full_time_year_round | The number of full-time year-round employed graduates from the major (Integer) | | Unemployed | The number of unemployed graduates from the major (Integer) | | Unemployment_rate | The unemployment rate of graduates from the major (Float) | | Median | The median salary of graduates from the major (Integer) | | P25th | The 25th percentile salary of graduates from the major (Integer) | | P75th | The 75th percentile salary of graduates from the major (Integer) | | College_jobs | The number of college jobs held by graduates from the major...

This graph shows the median salary that graduates earned after completing the top ranked full-time MBA programs in the United States (as ranked by Bloomberg Businessweek). The top ranked full-time MBA program was at the Duke University, Fuqua School of Business and following graduation the median base salary earned was 114,879 U.S. dollars per year.

Estimated gross annual earnings quartiles for postsecondary graduates working full time at the time of the interview are presented by the province of study, the level of study and gender. Estimates are available at five-year intervals.

Context

College tuition data is somewhat difficult to find - with many sites limiting it to online tools.

Content

The data this week comes from many different sources but originally came from the US Department of Education. The most comprehensive and easily accessible data cames from TuitionTracker.org who allows for a .csv download! Unfortunately it's in a very wide format that is not ready for analysis, but tidyr can make quick work of that with pivot_longer(). It has a massive amount of data, I have filtered it down to a few tables as seen in the attached .csv files. Tuition and diversity data can be quickly joined by dplyr::left_join(tuition_cost, diversity_school, by = c("name", "state")). Some of the other tables can also be joined but there may be some fuzzy matching needed.

Historical averages from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) - spanning the years 1985 - 2016.

• Tuition and fees by college/university for 2018-2019, along with school type, degree length, state, in-state vs out-of-state from the Chronicle of Higher Education.
• Diversity by college/university for 2014, along with school type, degree length, state, in-state vs out-of-state from the Chronicle of Higher Education.
• Example diversity graphics from Priceonomics.
• Average net cost by income bracket from TuitionTracker.org.
• Example price trend and graduation rates from TuitionTracker.org
• Salary potential data comes from payscale.com.

Acknowledgements

The data was downloaded and cleaned by Thomas Mock for #TidyTuesday during the week of March 10th, 2020. You can see the code used to clean the data in the TidyTuesday GitHub repository.

Inspiration

Use this dataset to explore the costs of college tuition in the US on their own, by geographic area, degree type, and/or salary. Whatever you choose to explore, consider sharing your notebook on Twitter using the #TidyTuesday hashtag!

License

The data provided in the TidyTuesday repository is licensed under the MIT License.

Consumer Expenditures - Income Before Taxes: Wages and Salaries by Highest Education: College Graduate: Master's, Professional, Doctoral Degree was 142820.00000 U.S. $ in January of 2023, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, Consumer Expenditures - Income Before Taxes: Wages and Salaries by Highest Education: College Graduate: Master's, Professional, Doctoral Degree reached a record high of 142820.00000 in January of 2023 and a record low of 96790.00000 in January of 2013. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for Consumer Expenditures - Income Before Taxes: Wages and Salaries by Highest Education: College Graduate: Master's, Professional, Doctoral Degree - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on October of 2025.

In 2024, the average salary of a Washington University EMBA graduate three years after graduation was over ******* U.S. dollars. CEIBS graduates could expect the second-highest salary, reaching ******* U.S. dollars the same year. EMBAThe Executive MBA (EMBA) program is a graduate-level business degree program and is primarily designed for executives, managers, and similar business leaders. These programs are usually targeted towards working professionals, often in the middle stages of their career, and are often flexible to allow for part-time attendance while the student still works. An EMBA program allows a student to increase career options and update or add to their existing skill set. The best universities worldwide In the United States, Princeton University was considered one of the best colleges, with graduates earning a median of ******* U.S. dollars after 10 years. According to the Times Higher Education ranking of the best universities worldwide, the University of Oxford in the UK was considered the best.

Collected post college salaries with pre-calculated columns

Collected ethically from PayScale website, using web scraping keeping request performance in mind. This unique dataset helps answer some basic questions like which college degree earns most salary, etc.

A comprehensive dataset of top colleges for Green Card sponsorships in 2025, including salary data, petition trends, and employer insights. Updated annually with the latest data on Green Card sponsorship trends and employer behavior.