Bachelor’s degree · earnings 4 years after completing

Highest-Paying Colleges for Chemistry (Bachelor's)

Graduates who complete a bachelor's degree in Chemistry earn a median of $65,120 four years after finishing, and the middle half earn between $48,307 and $84,018. We rank the 86 U.S. colleges whose Chemistry programs have at least 25 graduates in the Scorecard earnings sample, 3,788 graduates in all. That puts Chemistry at #51 of 131 bachelor's degree fields we rank by national median earnings.

Northeastern University, in Massachusetts, leads at $88,364, 34% above the median ranked school ($66,077). Most schools are tightly bunched: the middle half of ranked schools earn between $60,710 and $71,605, and the lowest earns $46,490, so outside the leaders the choice of school moves earnings less than the choice of major. 50 of the 86 ranked schools (58%) match or beat the national median.

Public universities dominate the top 20: 18 public, 2 private nonprofit and 0 for-profit. Across all ranked schools, 97% are public. California places 7 schools in the top 20, ahead of New Jersey (2).

The top 20 schools cost more than most: a median net price of $17,606 a year, against $15,719 across all 86 ranked schools. Their graduates who borrowed carry a median of $19,563 in federal loans, about 26% 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 1.8 years.

Showing the top 50 of 86 ranked schools. Select a column heading to re-sort the table. † = fewer than 40 graduates in the earnings sample.

Ranking table: Highest-Paying Colleges for Chemistry (Bachelor's)

1	Northeastern University Boston, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year	$88,364	32 †	$21,641	$30,915	2.6
2	University of Connecticut Storrs, CT Public · 4-year	$84,609	31 †	$25,818	$25,097	2.1
3	University of Delaware Newark, DE Public · 4-year	$84,428	37 †	$24,597	$17,799	1.5
4	University of California-Berkeley Berkeley, CA Public · 4-year	$82,386	40	$11,077	$13,481	1.2
5	Rowan University Glassboro, NJ Public · 4-year	$79,695	39 †	$25,000	$22,408	2.1
6	Emory University Atlanta, GA Private nonprofit · 4-year	$79,034	26 †	$19,625	$22,585	2.0
7	Oregon State University Corvallis, OR Public · 4-year	$78,417	37 †	$23,916	$19,604	1.9
8	Temple University Philadelphia, PA Public · 4-year	$78,052	36 †	$23,952	$28,198	2.7
9	University of California-San Diego La Jolla, CA Public · 4-year	$77,249	122	$16,050	$12,470	1.2
10	Metropolitan State University of Denver Denver, CO Public · 4-year	$76,759	25 †	$22,449	$15,327	1.7
11	Towson University Towson, MD Public · 4-year	$76,296	34 †	$21,187	$17,413	1.8
12	University of California-Irvine Irvine, CA Public · 4-year	$74,810	95	$13,000	$14,251	1.5
13	University of California-Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA Public · 4-year	$74,713	89	$15,805	$16,109	1.7
14	San Diego State University San Diego, CA Public · 4-year	$74,676	40	$17,999	$15,364	1.6
15	University of California-Davis Davis, CA Public · 4-year	$73,365	85	$13,000	$14,741	1.6
16	Rutgers University-New Brunswick New Brunswick, NJ Public · 4-year	$73,245	61	$19,250	$24,406	2.7
17	University of North Alabama Florence, AL Public · 4-year	$72,885	27 †	$23,250	$12,170	1.2
18	University of Cincinnati-Main Campus Cincinnati, OH Public · 4-year	$72,302	32 †	$19,500	$25,648	2.8
19	University of California-Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA Public · 4-year	$72,220	42	$11,000	$12,548	1.4
20	The University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX Public · 4-year	$72,025	82	$17,794	$19,857	2.1
21	Stony Brook University Stony Brook, NY Public · 4-year	$71,783	33 †	$21,490	$18,784	2.1
22	University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Minneapolis, MN Public · 4-year	$71,620	112	$19,500	$16,778	2.0
23	Ohio State University-Main Campus Columbus, OH Public · 4-year	$71,559	46	$24,500	$17,339	2.0
24	East Carolina University Greenville, NC Public · 4-year	$71,445	55	$22,000	$15,739	1.7
25	University of California-Santa Cruz Santa Cruz, CA Public · 4-year	$71,348	35 †	$15,000	$17,890	2.1
26	California State Polytechnic University-Pomona Pomona, CA Public · 4-year	$70,741	41	$23,333	$11,531	1.4
27	Texas Tech University Lubbock, TX Public · 4-year	$70,673	30 †	$27,487	$19,070	2.1
28	Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Edwardsville, IL Public · 4-year	$70,541	44	$22,000	$14,889	1.7
29	University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus Pittsburgh, PA Public · 4-year	$70,206	67	$27,000	$30,434	3.6
30	University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL Public · 4-year	$70,197	93	$21,250	$14,355	1.7
31	University at Albany Albany, NY Public · 4-year	$70,124	42	$21,250	$17,167	2.0
32	Texas A&M University-College Station College Station, TX Public · 4-year	$69,662	34 †	$18,488	$21,315	2.4
33	University of Houston Houston, TX Public · 4-year	$68,504	34 †	$12,500	$14,276	1.7
34	University at Buffalo Buffalo, NY Public · 4-year	$68,413	44	$22,783	$20,995	2.6
35	University of Virginia-Main Campus Charlottesville, VA Public · 4-year	$68,174	31 †	$19,000	$21,565	2.7
36	Purdue University-Main Campus West Lafayette, IN Public · 4-year	$67,680	47	$19,500	$14,600	1.9
37	Wichita State University Wichita, KS Public · 4-year	$67,475	27 †	$24,312	$13,194	1.6
38	Virginia Commonwealth University Richmond, VA Public · 4-year	$67,439	114	$20,500	$23,433	3.0
39	Lewis University Romeoville, IL Private nonprofit · 4-year	$67,006	28 †	—	$17,028	2.2
40	Florida State University Tallahassee, FL Public · 4-year	$66,724	32 †	$21,406	$11,297	1.4
41	Iowa State University Ames, IA Public · 4-year	$66,486	26 †	$20,199	$18,589	2.5
42	University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Eau Claire, WI Public · 4-year	$66,246	32 †	$23,093	$16,550	2.3
43	Christopher Newport University Newport News, VA Public · 4-year	$66,171	25 †	$26,500	$23,015	3.1
44	Michigan State University East Lansing, MI Public · 4-year	$65,983	58	$26,750	$19,680	2.5
45	University of North Carolina Wilmington Wilmington, NC Public · 4-year	$65,982	45	$16,400	$20,109	2.5
46	Kent State University at Kent Kent, OH Public · 4-year	$65,810	28 †	$24,892	$20,787	2.8
47	Georgia Southern University Statesboro, GA Public · 4-year	$65,629	35 †	$23,000	$15,267	1.9
48	Northern Illinois University Dekalb, IL Public · 4-year	$65,611	29 †	$22,750	$13,391	1.8
49	University of Northern Colorado Greeley, CO Public · 4-year	$65,414	30 †	$26,000	$17,760	2.9
50	Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus University Park, PA Public · 4-year	$65,230	32 †	$27,000	$32,875	4.6

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 Chemistry (CIP 4005, 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 86.
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.

Read the full methodology

Top states for Chemistry earnings

Median of the school medians for states with at least 3 ranked schools. The best school in each state is shown.

Median graduate earnings by state for Chemistry
State	Median earnings	Ranked schools	Top school
California	$71,784	14	University of California-Berkeley
New York	$69,269	4	Stony Brook University
Texas	$69,083	6	The University of Texas at Austin
Pennsylvania	$67,718	4	Temple University
Virginia	$67,439	3	University of Virginia-Main Campus
Illinois	$67,006	5	Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
Ohio	$65,810	5	University of Cincinnati-Main Campus
North Carolina	$64,135	6	East Carolina University
Wisconsin	$62,912	4	University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
Georgia	$61,207	4	Emory University

Other fields to compare, by what graduates earn.

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Highest-Paying Colleges for Chemistry (Bachelor's)

How this ranking is built

Top states for Chemistry earnings

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