Bachelor’s degree · earnings 4 years after completing
Highest-Paying Colleges for Business (General) (Bachelor's)
Graduates who complete a bachelor's degree in Business (General) earn a median of $68,407 four years after finishing, and the middle half earn between $48,204 and $94,571. We rank the 172 U.S. colleges whose Business (General) programs have at least 25 graduates in the Scorecard earnings sample, 22,223 graduates in all. That puts Business (General) at #42 of 131 bachelor's degree fields we rank by national median earnings.
University of Virginia-Main Campus, in Virginia, leads at $142,113, 121% above the median ranked school ($64,349). Most schools are tightly bunched: the middle half of ranked schools earn between $59,213 and $71,876, and the lowest earns $41,964, so outside the leaders the choice of school moves earnings less than the choice of major. 64 of the 172 ranked schools (37%) match or beat the national median.
Private nonprofit colleges dominate the top 20: 14 private nonprofit, 6 public and 0 for-profit. Across all ranked schools, 55% are public. New York places 4 schools in the top 20, ahead of Indiana (2).
The top 20 schools cost more than most: a median net price of $29,655 a year, against $18,797 across all 172 ranked schools. Their graduates who borrowed carry a median of $21,250 in federal loans, about 23% 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 1.9 years.
Showing the top 50 of 172 ranked schools. Select a column heading to re-sort the table. † = fewer than 40 graduates in the earnings sample.
| 1 | University of Virginia-Main Campus Charlottesville, VA Public · 4-year | $142,113 | 88 | — | $21,565 | 0.8 |
| 2 | New York University New York, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $137,804 | 285 | $19,500 | $37,050 | 1.5 |
| 3 | Baylor University Waco, TX Private nonprofit · 4-year | $124,434 | 25 † | $15,000 | $41,104 | 1.8 |
| 4 | Wake Forest University Winston-Salem, NC Private nonprofit · 4-year | $118,167 | 45 | $18,899 | $28,719 | 1.4 |
| 5 | Northeastern University Boston, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $113,620 | 604 | $22,500 | $30,915 | 1.7 |
| 6 | University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, IN Private nonprofit · 4-year | $111,444 | 27 † | — | $26,780 | 1.4 |
| 7 | Brandeis University Waltham, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $108,405 | 80 | $26,000 | $35,736 | 2.1 |
| 8 | Indiana University-Bloomington Bloomington, IN Public · 4-year | $105,583 | 1,271 | $19,500 | $16,264 | 0.9 |
| 9 | University of Rochester Rochester, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $93,367 | 32 † | — | $29,278 | 2.0 |
| 10 | Skidmore College Saratoga Springs, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $93,229 | 65 | $20,657 | $32,297 | 2.2 |
| 11 | University of Georgia Athens, GA Public · 4-year | $91,970 | 44 | $23,966 | $13,936 | 1.0 |
| 12 | Pace University New York, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $89,450 | 32 † | — | $30,892 | 2.3 |
| 13 | Drexel University Philadelphia, PA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $86,878 | 48 | — | $38,509 | 3.1 |
| 14 | Texas Tech University Lubbock, TX Public · 4-year | $86,278 | 25 † | — | $19,070 | 1.5 |
| 15 | University of Redlands Redlands, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $85,066 | 168 | $37,162 | $30,031 | 2.5 |
| 16 | Saint Anselm College Manchester, NH Private nonprofit · 4-year | $84,734 | 81 | $27,000 | $34,779 | 3.3 |
| 17 | University of Missouri-Columbia Columbia, MO Public · 4-year | $84,534 | 793 | $21,000 | $20,268 | 1.6 |
| 18 | Seattle Pacific University Seattle, WA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $84,493 | 83 | $21,500 | $24,488 | 2.2 |
| 19 | Gonzaga University Spokane, WA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $84,459 | 282 | $22,500 | $35,119 | 3.2 |
| 20 | University of Oregon Eugene, OR Public · 4-year | $83,543 | 380 | $20,089 | $22,182 | 1.9 |
| 21 | St Lawrence University Canton, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $82,269 | 89 | $26,000 | $28,651 | 2.5 |
| 22 | Albright College Reading, PA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $82,073 | 55 | $25,000 | $20,024 | 1.8 |
| 23 | Rollins College Winter Park, FL Private nonprofit · 4-year | $80,654 | 73 | $26,000 | $34,732 | 3.0 |
| 24 | Saint Mary's College of California Moraga, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $80,262 | 143 | $23,250 | $30,378 | 2.8 |
| 25 | Gustavus Adolphus College Saint Peter, MN Private nonprofit · 4-year | $79,260 | 55 | $25,500 | $22,900 | 2.2 |
| 26 | John Brown University Siloam Springs, AR Private nonprofit · 4-year | $78,800 | 43 | $19,752 | $20,397 | 1.8 |
| 27 | Concordia University Texas Austin, TX Private nonprofit · 4-year | $78,414 | 28 † | $37,500 | $23,131 | 2.1 |
| 28 | Mercer University Macon, GA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $77,713 | 55 | $37,500 | $23,847 | 2.2 |
| 29 | Regis University Denver, CO Private nonprofit · 4-year | $75,857 | 29 † | $30,141 | $18,397 | 2.1 |
| 30 | Temple University Philadelphia, PA Public · 4-year | $75,632 | 162 | $25,000 | $28,198 | 2.9 |
| 31 | Kalamazoo College Kalamazoo, MI Private nonprofit · 4-year | $75,260 | 49 | $26,000 | $19,072 | 1.9 |
| 32 | Washington College Chestertown, MD Private nonprofit · 4-year | $74,880 | 79 | $27,000 | $27,898 | 3.0 |
| 33 | Mount St. Mary's University Emmitsburg, MD Private nonprofit · 4-year | $74,839 | 120 | $23,500 | $22,655 | 2.4 |
| 34 | Wartburg College Waverly, IA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $74,824 | 97 | $27,000 | $32,908 | 3.5 |
| 35 | Florida State University Tallahassee, FL Public · 4-year | $74,716 | 56 | — | $11,297 | 1.1 |
| 36 | Lake Forest College Lake Forest, IL Private nonprofit · 4-year | $74,632 | 68 | $27,000 | $28,673 | 3.0 |
| 37 | Davenport University Grand Rapids, MI Private nonprofit · 4-year | $73,948 | 184 | $24,850 | $17,707 | 1.8 |
| 38 | University of Connecticut Storrs, CT Public · 4-year | $73,789 | 53 | $19,078 | $25,097 | 2.8 |
| 39 | University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth North Dartmouth, MA Public · 4-year | $73,398 | 49 | $21,702 | $20,927 | 2.6 |
| 40 | Pacific Union College Angwin, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $73,035 | 41 | $27,000 | $41,008 | 4.5 |
| 41 | University of New Hampshire-Main Campus Durham, NH Public · 4-year | $72,692 | 45 | $20,250 | $23,805 | 3.1 |
| 42 | Washington & Jefferson College Washington, PA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $72,219 | 65 | $26,000 | $25,002 | 2.8 |
| 43 | University of Houston-Clear Lake Houston, TX Public · 4-year | $71,973 | 44 | $18,812 | $15,563 | 1.7 |
| 44 | Randolph-Macon College Ashland, VA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $71,844 | 67 | $27,000 | $27,866 | 3.2 |
| 45 | University of North Texas Denton, TX Public · 4-year | $71,695 | 75 | $16,570 | $15,649 | 1.7 |
| 46 | Montana State University Bozeman, MT Public · 4-year | $71,578 | 258 | $20,735 | $22,499 | 2.3 |
| 47 | Southwestern University Georgetown, TX Private nonprofit · 4-year | $71,342 | 53 | $25,024 | $29,224 | 3.2 |
| 48 | University of Baltimore Baltimore, MD Public · 4-year | $71,211 | 223 | $21,750 | $13,868 | 1.6 |
| 49 | Bellevue University Bellevue, NE Private nonprofit · 4-year | $71,128 | 395 | $22,875 | $17,550 | 2.1 |
| 50 | Bushnell University Eugene, OR Private nonprofit · 4-year | $71,050 | 29 † | $25,149 | $20,789 | 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 Business (General) (CIP 5201, 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 172.
- 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 Business (General) 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 | $85,860 | 8 | New York University |
| Washington | $84,459 | 3 | Seattle Pacific University |
| Maryland | $74,839 | 3 | Washington College |
| Pennsylvania | $73,926 | 6 | Drexel University |
| California | $73,035 | 5 | University of Redlands |
| New Hampshire | $72,692 | 3 | Saint Anselm College |
| Michigan | $71,222 | 4 | Kalamazoo College |
| Oregon | $71,050 | 3 | University of Oregon |
| Massachusetts | $70,144 | 6 | Northeastern University |
| Virginia | $70,116 | 4 | University of Virginia-Main Campus |
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