Bachelor’s degree · earnings 4 years after completing
Highest-Paying Colleges for Anthropology (Bachelor's)
Graduates who complete a bachelor's degree in Anthropology earn a median of $46,676 four years after finishing, and the middle half earn between $32,056 and $63,905. We rank the 110 U.S. colleges whose Anthropology programs have at least 25 graduates in the Scorecard earnings sample, 5,105 graduates in all. That puts Anthropology at #120 of 131 bachelor's degree fields we rank, toward the lower end of the pay scale.
Columbia University in the City of New York, in New York, leads at $83,493, 82% above the median ranked school ($45,905). The gap between schools is moderate: the middle half of ranked schools earn between $42,589 and $52,158, and the lowest earns $29,754. 52 of the 110 ranked schools (47%) match or beat the national median.
Public universities dominate the top 20: 14 public, 6 private nonprofit and 0 for-profit. Across all ranked schools, 91% are public. California places 6 schools in the top 20, ahead of New York (4).
The top 20 schools cost more than most: a median net price of $20,374 a year, against $16,674 across all 110 ranked schools. Their graduates who borrowed carry a median of $17,000 in federal loans, about 30% of one year of earnings. Measured against a typical high-school graduate in the same state, the median top-20 school recovers its net cost in about 3.2 years.
Showing the top 50 of 110 ranked schools. Select a column heading to re-sort the table. † = fewer than 40 graduates in the earnings sample.
| 1 | Columbia University in the City of New York New York, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $83,493 | 26 † | $32,250 | $21,590 | 1.8 |
| 2 | Emory University Atlanta, GA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $78,768 | 27 † | $21,515 | $22,585 | 2.0 |
| 3 | Washington University in St Louis St. Louis, MO Private nonprofit · 4-year | $71,018 | 27 † | $15,000 | $21,786 | 2.4 |
| 4 | Dartmouth College Hanover, NH Private nonprofit · 4-year | $70,846 | 25 † | $14,363 | $29,519 | 4.1 |
| 5 | Fordham University Bronx, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $66,562 | 33 † | $22,562 | $44,338 | 5.8 |
| 6 | University of California-Berkeley Berkeley, CA Public · 4-year | $64,359 | 98 | $12,572 | $13,481 | 2.0 |
| 7 | San Francisco State University San Francisco, CA Public · 4-year | $61,300 | 51 | $16,500 | $12,278 | 2.0 |
| 8 | James Madison University Harrisonburg, VA Public · 4-year | $60,841 | 25 † | $20,500 | $23,322 | 3.9 |
| 9 | CUNY Lehman College Bronx, NY Public · 4-year | $60,488 | 55 | $10,663 | $3,148 | 0.5 |
| 10 | University of California-San Diego La Jolla, CA Public · 4-year | $56,982 | 48 | $13,500 | $12,470 | 2.5 |
| 11 | University of California-Davis Davis, CA Public · 4-year | $56,836 | 73 | $14,000 | $14,741 | 3.0 |
| 12 | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, NC Public · 4-year | $56,589 | 58 | $12,500 | $11,655 | 2.1 |
| 13 | Rutgers University-New Brunswick New Brunswick, NJ Public · 4-year | $56,468 | 46 | $25,154 | $24,406 | 5.0 |
| 14 | University of California-Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA Public · 4-year | $56,238 | 130 | $18,000 | $16,109 | 3.3 |
| 15 | SUNY Oneonta Oneonta, NY Public · 4-year | $55,981 | 27 † | $20,253 | $19,158 | 3.8 |
| 16 | Monmouth University West Long Branch, NJ Private nonprofit · 4-year | $55,868 | 26 † | $24,000 | $30,988 | 6.6 |
| 17 | University of Colorado Boulder Boulder, CO Public · 4-year | $55,217 | 36 † | $18,583 | $25,346 | 7.0 |
| 18 | University of Connecticut Storrs, CT Public · 4-year | $54,907 | 28 † | $17,500 | $25,097 | 5.8 |
| 19 | University of California-Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA Public · 4-year | $54,905 | 228 | $14,579 | $12,548 | 2.8 |
| 20 | University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison, WI Public · 4-year | $54,773 | 28 † | $16,166 | $17,354 | 4.0 |
| 21 | California State University-Fullerton Fullerton, CA Public · 4-year | $54,092 | 35 † | $16,419 | $6,555 | 1.5 |
| 22 | San Diego State University San Diego, CA Public · 4-year | $53,991 | 55 | $12,886 | $15,364 | 3.6 |
| 23 | Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania Bloomsburg, PA Public · 4-year | $53,927 | 35 † | $23,125 | $15,699 | 3.6 |
| 24 | Binghamton University Vestal, NY Public · 4-year | $53,460 | 43 | $20,587 | $21,620 | 4.9 |
| 25 | University of Washington-Seattle Campus Seattle, WA Public · 4-year | $53,212 | 83 | $11,715 | $14,091 | 4.5 |
| 26 | University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI Public · 4-year | $53,042 | 62 | $13,997 | $13,138 | 2.9 |
| 27 | University of California-Santa Cruz Santa Cruz, CA Public · 4-year | $52,315 | 121 | $16,035 | $17,890 | 4.7 |
| 28 | Texas A&M University-College Station College Station, TX Public · 4-year | $52,227 | 55 | $20,554 | $21,315 | 4.9 |
| 29 | California State University-Channel Islands Camarillo, CA Public · 4-year | $51,951 | 25 † | $19,375 | $9,849 | 2.6 |
| 30 | University of Virginia-Main Campus Charlottesville, VA Public · 4-year | $51,811 | 36 † | $12,500 | $21,565 | 5.7 |
| 31 | CUNY Hunter College New York, NY Public · 4-year | $51,787 | 42 | $8,772 | $2,984 | 0.7 |
| 32 | Southern New Hampshire University Manchester, NH Private nonprofit · 4-year | $51,100 | 42 | $22,164 | $36,708 | 16.1 |
| 33 | University of California-Irvine Irvine, CA Public · 4-year | $50,850 | 80 | $16,000 | $14,251 | 4.1 |
| 34 | Western Washington University Bellingham, WA Public · 4-year | $50,703 | 75 | $21,727 | $21,193 | 8.4 |
| 35 | Baylor University Waco, TX Private nonprofit · 4-year | $50,699 | 26 † | $27,000 | $41,104 | 10.3 |
| 36 | Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus University Park, PA Public · 4-year | $50,640 | 31 † | $27,000 | $32,875 | 9.3 |
| 37 | Ohio State University-Main Campus Columbus, OH Public · 4-year | $50,055 | 60 | $20,500 | $17,339 | 5.0 |
| 38 | University of Vermont Burlington, VT Public · 4-year | $49,987 | 33 † | $19,250 | $19,343 | 6.1 |
| 39 | Arizona State University Campus Immersion Tempe, AZ Public · 4-year | $49,597 | 142 | $20,000 | $14,967 | 4.6 |
| 40 | University of Missouri-Columbia Columbia, MO Public · 4-year | $49,351 | 25 † | $15,430 | $20,268 | 5.6 |
| 41 | California State University-Fresno Fresno, CA Public · 4-year | $49,187 | 25 † | $15,000 | $7,000 | 2.3 |
| 42 | University of Nevada-Reno Reno, NV Public · 4-year | $48,607 | 33 † | $22,000 | $15,927 | 5.5 |
| 43 | The University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX Public · 4-year | $48,486 | 66 | $19,809 | $19,857 | 5.8 |
| 44 | California State University-Sacramento Sacramento, CA Public · 4-year | $48,367 | 44 | $18,750 | $9,338 | 3.3 |
| 45 | University of North Florida Jacksonville, FL Public · 4-year | $48,132 | 33 † | $18,000 | $10,154 | 2.9 |
| 46 | University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Minneapolis, MN Public · 4-year | $48,010 | 43 | $20,500 | $16,778 | 6.6 |
| 47 | University of New Mexico-Main Campus Albuquerque, NM Public · 4-year | $47,958 | 50 | $19,600 | $15,489 | 3.9 |
| 48 | University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Milwaukee, WI Public · 4-year | $47,811 | 35 † | $24,491 | $15,014 | 5.9 |
| 49 | University of Florida Gainesville, FL Public · 4-year | $47,348 | 140 | $14,491 | $6,541 | 2.0 |
| 50 | Kennesaw State University Kennesaw, GA Public · 4-year | $47,179 | 33 † | $21,500 | $15,048 | 4.5 |
How this ranking is built
A school appears here only if it meets every condition below.
- Which programs count
- Main campuses only, one entry per institution. Scorecard reports program outcomes for the whole six-digit federal ID (OPEID6), so branch campuses share their parent’s numbers and are not listed twice.
- Only bachelor's degree programs in Anthropology (CIP 4502, the four-digit code Scorecard uses to group related programs).
- At least 25 graduates in the earnings sample. Smaller samples are left out because their medians swing too much and the counts carry a little privacy noise.
- A major gets a page only when at least 20 schools qualify. This one has 110.
- Ranked by median earnings 4 years after completing, highest first. Ties go to the larger sample, then to the school name.
- Schools missing earnings or a sample size are left out rather than estimated.
- What the numbers mean
- Earnings: median annual earnings of graduates four years after completing. The cohort completed in academic years 2017-18 and 2018-19 and was measured in calendar years 2022 and 2023, in 2024 dollars.
- Who is counted: graduates who received federal student aid (Title IV grants or loans), and only those who were working and not enrolled in more school that year. Graduates without federal aid, those who went on to further study and those with no earnings are not in the median.
- Scorecard adds privacy noise to counts and medians and hides values it cannot protect, so a gap of a few percent between two schools is not meaningful.
- Graduates: the number of graduates in that earnings sample. A † marks fewer than 40, where the figure is less precise.
- Debt: median federal loan debt (Stafford and Grad PLUS loans disbursed at that school) of graduates who borrowed, from the 2018-19 and 2019-20 completers. Parent PLUS and private loans are not included.
- Net price: average yearly cost after grants and scholarships for the whole institution, not this major, academic year 2023-24.
- Payback: 4 years of net price divided by how much these earnings exceed a high-school graduate’s in the school’s state. Shown only when that gap is at least $2,000, the same formula as the rest of the site.
- Source: U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard field-of-study data, June 2026 release.
Top states for Anthropology earnings
Median of the school medians for states with at least 3 ranked schools. The best school in each state is shown.
| State | Median earnings | Ranked schools | Top school |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | $54,721 | 8 | Columbia University in the City of New York |
| California | $51,951 | 19 | University of California-Berkeley |
| New Hampshire | $51,100 | 3 | Dartmouth College |
| Washington | $50,703 | 3 | University of Washington-Seattle Campus |
| Missouri | $49,351 | 3 | Washington University in St Louis |
| Pennsylvania | $48,484 | 4 | Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania |
| Wisconsin | $47,811 | 3 | University of Wisconsin-Madison |
| Georgia | $47,179 | 3 | Emory University |
| Oregon | $45,184 | 3 | University of Oregon |
| Texas | $44,289 | 8 | Texas A&M University-College Station |
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