Bachelor’s degree · earnings 4 years after completing
Highest-Paying Colleges for Architecture (Bachelor's)
Graduates who complete a bachelor's degree in Architecture earn a median of $66,914 four years after finishing, and the middle half earn between $54,236 and $78,634. We rank the 65 U.S. colleges whose Architecture programs have at least 25 graduates in the Scorecard earnings sample, 3,886 graduates in all. That puts Architecture at #46 of 131 bachelor's degree fields we rank by national median earnings.
University of Notre Dame, in Indiana, leads at $82,983, 23% above the median ranked school ($67,204). Most schools are tightly bunched: the middle half of ranked schools earn between $62,939 and $70,752, and the lowest earns $56,975, so outside the leaders the choice of school moves earnings less than the choice of major. 35 of the 65 ranked schools (54%) match or beat the national median.
The top 20 mix sectors: 12 public, 7 private nonprofit and 1 for-profit. California places 4 schools in the top 20, ahead of Pennsylvania (3).
The top 20 schools cost more than most: a median net price of $22,944 a year, against $17,887 across all 65 ranked schools. Their graduates who borrowed carry a median of $28,192 in federal loans, about 38% 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 2.4 years.
Showing the top 50 of 65 ranked schools. Select a column heading to re-sort the table. † = fewer than 40 graduates in the earnings sample.
| 1 | University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, IN Private nonprofit · 4-year | $82,983 | 35 † | $28,419 | $26,780 | 2.3 |
| 2 | Pratt Institute-Main Brooklyn, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $78,206 | 53 | — | $52,659 | 5.0 |
| 3 | California State Polytechnic University-Pomona Pomona, CA Public · 4-year | $76,969 | 77 | $28,040 | $11,531 | 1.2 |
| 4 | The University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX Public · 4-year | $76,808 | 66 | $21,000 | $19,857 | 1.9 |
| 5 | University of California-Berkeley Berkeley, CA Public · 4-year | $76,679 | 81 | $15,000 | $13,481 | 1.4 |
| 6 | California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo San Luis Obispo, CA Public · 4-year | $76,613 | 129 | $27,500 | $16,665 | 1.7 |
| 7 | Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus University Park, PA Public · 4-year | $76,181 | 44 | $30,440 | $32,875 | 3.3 |
| 8 | University of Miami Coral Gables, FL Private nonprofit · 4-year | $75,633 | 34 † | — | $37,244 | 3.6 |
| 9 | Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Troy, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $75,551 | 54 | $31,000 | $36,228 | 3.6 |
| 10 | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Blacksburg, VA Public · 4-year | $75,074 | 91 | $29,000 | $24,953 | 2.6 |
| 11 | University of Arizona Tucson, AZ Public · 4-year | $74,972 | 35 † | — | $16,674 | 1.7 |
| 12 | Newschool of Architecture and Design San Diego, CA For-profit · 4-year | $74,587 | 36 † | — | $52,570 | 5.6 |
| 13 | Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $73,439 | 26 † | — | $31,944 | 3.5 |
| 14 | Drexel University Philadelphia, PA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $72,915 | 54 | $31,000 | $38,509 | 4.2 |
| 15 | Auburn University Auburn, AL Public · 4-year | $72,420 | 57 | $28,000 | $24,323 | 2.4 |
| 16 | Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus Atlanta, GA Public · 4-year | $71,292 | 25 † | $28,192 | $12,116 | 1.3 |
| 17 | Kennesaw State University Kennesaw, GA Public · 4-year | $70,752 | 47 | $31,000 | $15,048 | 1.6 |
| 18 | University of Houston Houston, TX Public · 4-year | $70,616 | 70 | $26,125 | $14,276 | 1.6 |
| 19 | University of Virginia-Main Campus Charlottesville, VA Public · 4-year | $70,213 | 34 † | $20,784 | $21,565 | 2.6 |
| 20 | Drury University Springfield, MO Private nonprofit · 4-year | $70,134 | 36 † | $31,000 | $20,831 | 2.4 |
| 21 | The Catholic University of America Washington, DC Private nonprofit · 4-year | $69,838 | 49 | $26,712 | $29,561 | 4.0 |
| 22 | Mississippi State University Mississippi State, MS Public · 4-year | $69,699 | 38 † | $31,000 | $17,595 | 1.8 |
| 23 | University of Washington-Seattle Campus Seattle, WA Public · 4-year | $69,515 | 42 | $19,748 | $14,091 | 2.0 |
| 24 | Iowa State University Ames, IA Public · 4-year | $69,310 | 79 | $30,474 | $18,589 | 2.3 |
| 25 | Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Baton Rouge, LA Public · 4-year | $69,029 | 25 † | $26,500 | $19,151 | 2.2 |
| 26 | The University of Tennessee-Knoxville Knoxville, TN Public · 4-year | $68,765 | 56 | $31,000 | $18,976 | 2.2 |
| 27 | University of Maryland-College Park College Park, MD Public · 4-year | $68,527 | 76 | $20,913 | $15,678 | 2.0 |
| 28 | Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago, IL Private nonprofit · 4-year | $68,358 | 54 | $31,000 | $18,425 | 2.3 |
| 29 | University of Arkansas Fayetteville, AR Public · 4-year | $67,955 | 50 | $26,250 | $18,209 | 2.1 |
| 30 | Woodbury University Burbank, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $67,517 | 73 | $41,250 | $33,692 | 4.4 |
| 31 | University of Oregon Eugene, OR Public · 4-year | $67,425 | 66 | $19,000 | $22,182 | 2.9 |
| 32 | University of Florida Gainesville, FL Public · 4-year | $67,399 | 86 | $18,953 | $6,541 | 0.8 |
| 33 | University of North Carolina at Charlotte Charlotte, NC Public · 4-year | $67,204 | 73 | $26,000 | $15,435 | 1.9 |
| 34 | Marywood University Scranton, PA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $67,178 | 45 | $31,000 | $23,388 | 3.0 |
| 35 | Wentworth Institute of Technology Boston, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $67,122 | 118 | $25,000 | $34,170 | 5.2 |
| 36 | New Jersey Institute of Technology Newark, NJ Public · 4-year | $66,840 | 66 | — | $16,504 | 2.2 |
| 37 | Ohio State University-Main Campus Columbus, OH Public · 4-year | $66,131 | 68 | $25,500 | $17,339 | 2.3 |
| 38 | University of Cincinnati-Main Campus Cincinnati, OH Public · 4-year | $65,449 | 65 | $22,600 | $25,648 | 3.5 |
| 39 | North Dakota State University-Main Campus Fargo, ND Public · 4-year | $65,148 | 53 | $26,875 | $15,543 | 2.2 |
| 40 | Roger Williams University Bristol, RI Private nonprofit · 4-year | $65,092 | 86 | $27,000 | $37,999 | 6.2 |
| 41 | University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI Public · 4-year | $65,015 | 52 | $15,000 | $13,138 | 1.7 |
| 42 | Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton, FL Public · 4-year | $64,730 | 49 | $30,749 | $8,752 | 1.2 |
| 43 | SUNY College of Technology at Alfred Alfred, NY Public · 4-year | $64,658 | 29 † | $29,169 | $15,016 | 2.1 |
| 44 | Texas A&M University-College Station College Station, TX Public · 4-year | $64,643 | 79 | $17,781 | $21,315 | 2.9 |
| 45 | Clemson University Clemson, SC Public · 4-year | $63,892 | 58 | $21,500 | $22,253 | 3.1 |
| 46 | Texas Tech University Lubbock, TX Public · 4-year | $63,871 | 92 | $20,000 | $19,070 | 2.6 |
| 47 | Judson University Elgin, IL Private nonprofit · 4-year | $63,846 | 25 † | $26,442 | $18,558 | 2.7 |
| 48 | Southern Illinois University-Carbondale Carbondale, IL Public · 4-year | $63,104 | 47 | $25,000 | $13,297 | 2.0 |
| 49 | University of Detroit Mercy Detroit, MI Private nonprofit · 4-year | $62,939 | 42 | $26,500 | $15,232 | 2.2 |
| 50 | University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Milwaukee, WI Public · 4-year | $62,803 | 110 | $24,237 | $15,014 | 2.4 |
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 Architecture (CIP 0402, 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 65.
- 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 Architecture 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | $76,613 | 5 | California State Polytechnic University-Pomona |
| Pennsylvania | $73,177 | 4 | Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus |
| New York | $70,105 | 4 | Pratt Institute-Main |
| Florida | $67,399 | 3 | University of Miami |
| Ohio | $65,449 | 3 | Ohio State University-Main Campus |
| Texas | $63,871 | 7 | The University of Texas at Austin |
| Illinois | $63,475 | 4 | Illinois Institute of Technology |
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