Bachelor’s degree · earnings 4 years after completing
Highest-Paying Colleges for Interdisciplinary Studies (General) (Bachelor's)
Graduates who complete a bachelor's degree in Interdisciplinary Studies (General) earn a median of $50,532 four years after finishing, and the middle half earn between $33,727 and $70,500. We rank the 40 U.S. colleges whose Interdisciplinary Studies (General) programs have at least 25 graduates in the Scorecard earnings sample, 4,084 graduates in all. That puts Interdisciplinary Studies (General) at #104 of 131 bachelor's degree fields we rank, toward the lower end of the pay scale.
Lehigh University, in Pennsylvania, leads at $91,697, 78% above the median ranked school ($51,395). Most schools are tightly bunched: the middle half of ranked schools earn between $46,452 and $54,800, and the lowest earns $31,138, so outside the leaders the choice of school moves earnings less than the choice of major. 21 of the 40 ranked schools (53%) match or beat the national median.
The top 20 mix sectors: 10 public, 10 private nonprofit and 0 for-profit. The top 20 are spread across 14 states, with New York the most common (3).
The top 20 schools cost more than most: a median net price of $21,402 a year, against $18,129 across all 40 ranked schools. Their graduates who borrowed carry a median of $23,526 in federal loans, about 43% 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 4.2 years.
Showing the top 40 of 40 ranked schools. Select a column heading to re-sort the table. † = fewer than 40 graduates in the earnings sample.
| 1 | Lehigh University Bethlehem, PA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $91,697 | 28 † | $24,960 | $36,931 | 2.7 |
| 2 | Marist University Poughkeepsie, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $67,076 | 47 | $25,000 | $41,544 | 5.3 |
| 3 | Park University Parkville, MO Private nonprofit · 4-year | $60,509 | 52 | $22,500 | $21,032 | 3.3 |
| 4 | Mount Saint Mary College Newburgh, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $60,133 | 34 † | $18,750 | $25,522 | 4.2 |
| 5 | University of Oklahoma-Norman Campus Norman, OK Public · 4-year | $59,001 | 59 | $19,100 | $15,300 | 2.5 |
| 6 | National University San Diego, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $58,727 | 61 | $31,250 | $22,878 | 4.2 |
| 7 | The University of Alabama Tuscaloosa, AL Public · 4-year | $56,945 | 71 | $26,735 | $22,420 | 3.6 |
| 8 | Eastern Washington University Cheney, WA Public · 4-year | $56,507 | 90 | $19,534 | $13,886 | 3.5 |
| 9 | Auburn University Auburn, AL Public · 4-year | $55,331 | 60 | $21,750 | $24,323 | 4.2 |
| 10 | Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Edwardsville, IL Public · 4-year | $55,110 | 29 † | $25,991 | $14,889 | 3.1 |
| 11 | Houston Christian University Houston, TX Private nonprofit · 4-year | $54,696 | 33 † | $28,333 | $20,629 | 4.1 |
| 12 | Touro University New York, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $54,467 | 165 | $16,666 | $29,627 | 6.3 |
| 13 | Western Washington University Bellingham, WA Public · 4-year | $54,290 | 95 | $21,595 | $21,193 | 6.2 |
| 14 | University of Toledo Toledo, OH Public · 4-year | $53,672 | 187 | $23,000 | $17,249 | 3.9 |
| 15 | University of Arizona Tucson, AZ Public · 4-year | $53,471 | 274 | $22,494 | $16,674 | 3.9 |
| 16 | Bethel University (IN) Mishawaka, IN Private nonprofit · 4-year | $53,152 | 43 | $25,434 | $18,610 | 4.5 |
| 17 | Keiser University-Ft Lauderdale Fort Lauderdale, FL Private nonprofit · 4-year | $52,293 | 258 | $29,250 | $30,498 | 6.8 |
| 18 | University of Central Florida Orlando, FL Public · 4-year | $51,959 | 344 | $19,408 | $10,411 | 2.4 |
| 19 | Baylor University Waco, TX Private nonprofit · 4-year | $51,727 | 38 † | $26,500 | $41,104 | 9.7 |
| 20 | Boise State University Boise, ID Public · 4-year | $51,708 | 178 | $24,051 | $21,610 | 5.7 |
| 21 | Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton, FL Public · 4-year | $51,082 | 519 | $19,111 | $8,752 | 2.1 |
| 22 | Fitchburg State University Fitchburg, MA Public · 4-year | $50,089 | 102 | $22,976 | $14,262 | 6.3 |
| 23 | University of North Florida Jacksonville, FL Public · 4-year | $49,804 | 96 | $15,653 | $10,154 | 2.6 |
| 24 | Jackson State University Jackson, MS Public · 4-year | $49,299 | 104 | $31,250 | $23,836 | 5.2 |
| 25 | Northern Arizona University Flagstaff, AZ Public · 4-year | $49,080 | 77 | $25,349 | $14,158 | 4.5 |
| 26 | Florida Gulf Coast University Fort Myers, FL Public · 4-year | $48,879 | 137 | $18,115 | $12,568 | 3.5 |
| 27 | Fairleigh Dickinson University-Metropolitan Campus Teaneck, NJ Private nonprofit · 4-year | $48,292 | 39 † | $25,000 | $15,404 | 5.4 |
| 28 | Towson University Towson, MD Public · 4-year | $47,597 | 26 † | — | $17,413 | 6.9 |
| 29 | Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University Tallahassee, FL Public · 4-year | $47,139 | 205 | $27,500 | $13,739 | 4.3 |
| 30 | College of Coastal Georgia Brunswick, GA Public · 4-year | $46,511 | 29 † | $17,000 | $15,261 | 4.8 |
| 31 | Liberty University Lynchburg, VA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $46,274 | 29 † | $24,259 | $29,357 | 12.2 |
| 32 | Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania Slippery Rock, PA Public · 4-year | $46,176 | 131 | $23,687 | $19,608 | 8.1 |
| 33 | Millersville University of Pennsylvania Millersville, PA Public · 4-year | $46,119 | 63 | $23,250 | $20,787 | 8.6 |
| 34 | University of South Alabama Mobile, AL Public · 4-year | $43,023 | 113 | $25,419 | $17,648 | 6.5 |
| 35 | Eastern Oregon University La Grande, OR Public · 4-year | $42,838 | 36 † | $25,000 | $17,148 | 11.7 |
| 36 | Savannah State University Savannah, GA Public · 4-year | $39,208 | 48 | $33,000 | $8,172 | 6.1 |
| 37 | Chowan University Murfreesboro, NC Private nonprofit · 4-year | $36,682 | 27 † | — | $14,086 | 21.5 |
| 38 | Wiley University Marshall, TX Private nonprofit · 4-year | $36,678 | 53 | $23,260 | $7,092 | — |
| 39 | Trinity College of Jacksonville Jacksonville, FL Private nonprofit · 4-year | $36,114 | 26 † | $14,499 | $20,011 | — |
| 40 | College of the Atlantic Bar Harbor, ME Private nonprofit · 4-year | $31,138 | 78 | $24,500 | $25,184 | — |
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 Interdisciplinary Studies (General) (CIP 3000, 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 40.
- 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 Interdisciplinary Studies (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 | $60,133 | 3 | Marist University |
| Alabama | $55,331 | 3 | The University of Alabama |
| Texas | $51,727 | 3 | Houston Christian University |
| Florida | $49,804 | 7 | Keiser University-Ft Lauderdale |
| Pennsylvania | $46,176 | 3 | Lehigh University |
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