Bachelor’s degree · earnings 4 years after completing
Highest-Paying Colleges for International Business (Bachelor's)
Graduates who complete a bachelor's degree in International Business earn a median of $73,201 four years after finishing, and the middle half earn between $51,264 and $98,832. We rank the 66 U.S. colleges whose International Business programs have at least 25 graduates in the Scorecard earnings sample, 3,294 graduates in all. That puts International Business at #36 of 131 bachelor's degree fields we rank by national median earnings.
Georgetown University, in District of Columbia, leads at $159,452, 115% above the median ranked school ($74,164). The gap between schools is moderate: the middle half of ranked schools earn between $65,530 and $85,211, and the lowest earns $47,431. 36 of the 66 ranked schools (55%) match or beat the national median.
The top 20 mix sectors: 7 public, 13 private nonprofit and 0 for-profit. Pennsylvania places 4 schools in the top 20, ahead of District of Columbia (2).
The top 20 schools cost more than most: a median net price of $30,027 a year, against $18,960 across all 66 ranked schools. Their graduates who borrowed carry a median of $23,250 in federal loans, about 25% 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 2.1 years.
Showing the top 50 of 66 ranked schools. Select a column heading to re-sort the table. † = fewer than 40 graduates in the earnings sample.
| 1 | Georgetown University Washington, DC Private nonprofit · 4-year | $159,452 | 42 | $14,394 | $40,815 | 1.4 |
| 2 | Northeastern University Boston, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $125,162 | 44 | $25,625 | $30,915 | 1.5 |
| 3 | University of Georgia Athens, GA Public · 4-year | $109,345 | 50 | $15,820 | $13,936 | 0.7 |
| 4 | University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Minneapolis, MN Public · 4-year | $108,566 | 35 † | $19,600 | $16,778 | 0.9 |
| 5 | University of South Carolina-Columbia Columbia, SC Public · 4-year | $107,205 | 94 | $25,174 | $22,811 | 1.3 |
| 6 | University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison, WI Public · 4-year | $106,783 | 27 † | — | $17,354 | 1.0 |
| 7 | Fordham University Bronx, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $106,665 | 70 | $23,250 | $44,338 | 2.5 |
| 8 | Villanova University Villanova, PA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $103,700 | 46 | $22,250 | $43,756 | 2.6 |
| 9 | George Washington University Washington, DC Private nonprofit · 4-year | $99,018 | 57 | $21,875 | $36,586 | 2.5 |
| 10 | Drexel University Philadelphia, PA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $94,595 | 47 | $28,455 | $38,509 | 2.7 |
| 11 | Saint Louis University Saint Louis, MO Private nonprofit · 4-year | $92,270 | 32 † | $23,500 | $24,398 | 1.7 |
| 12 | University of Maryland-College Park College Park, MD Public · 4-year | $90,333 | 46 | $22,500 | $15,678 | 1.2 |
| 13 | Bryant University Smithfield, RI Private nonprofit · 4-year | $89,409 | 90 | $26,790 | $41,219 | 3.4 |
| 14 | Massachusetts Maritime Academy Buzzards Bay, MA Public · 4-year | $89,094 | 82 | $25,000 | $21,582 | 1.8 |
| 15 | Loyola University Chicago Chicago, IL Private nonprofit · 4-year | $87,698 | 32 † | $25,000 | $36,079 | 2.8 |
| 16 | University of Delaware Newark, DE Public · 4-year | $87,497 | 40 | $23,250 | $17,799 | 1.4 |
| 17 | University of San Diego San Diego, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $85,285 | 47 | $19,348 | $30,365 | 2.5 |
| 18 | Dickinson College Carlisle, PA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $84,990 | 57 | $19,000 | $37,607 | 3.1 |
| 19 | University of Dayton Dayton, OH Private nonprofit · 4-year | $84,485 | 50 | $24,750 | $29,533 | 2.4 |
| 20 | Saint Joseph's University - Philadelphia Philadelphia, PA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $81,519 | 49 | $27,000 | $29,689 | 2.6 |
| 21 | The University of Arizona Global Campus Chandler, AZ Public · 4-year | $81,292 | 39 † | $26,497 | — | — |
| 22 | University of Denver Denver, CO Private nonprofit · 4-year | $80,511 | 40 | $21,742 | $36,131 | 3.6 |
| 23 | Grand Valley State University Allendale, MI Public · 4-year | $80,324 | 35 † | $24,295 | $16,317 | 1.4 |
| 24 | Wayne State University Detroit, MI Public · 4-year | $79,882 | 216 | $18,750 | $12,766 | 1.1 |
| 25 | Kennesaw State University Kennesaw, GA Public · 4-year | $78,523 | 34 † | $26,000 | $15,048 | 1.3 |
| 26 | CUNY Bernard M Baruch College New York, NY Public · 4-year | $78,019 | 42 | — | $3,033 | 0.3 |
| 27 | Maine Maritime Academy Castine, ME Public · 4-year | $77,641 | 34 † | $27,000 | $23,414 | 2.4 |
| 28 | College of Charleston Charleston, SC Public · 4-year | $76,727 | 50 | $19,500 | $18,960 | 1.8 |
| 29 | University of Nevada-Reno Reno, NV Public · 4-year | $76,236 | 25 † | $13,744 | $15,927 | 1.6 |
| 30 | San Francisco State University San Francisco, CA Public · 4-year | $75,824 | 82 | $20,897 | $12,278 | 1.3 |
| 31 | Arizona State University Campus Immersion Tempe, AZ Public · 4-year | $75,698 | 29 † | $16,000 | $14,967 | 1.5 |
| 32 | The University of Tampa Tampa, FL Private nonprofit · 4-year | $75,090 | 52 | $24,601 | $36,211 | 3.6 |
| 33 | Bowling Green State University-Main Campus Bowling Green, OH Public · 4-year | $74,183 | 39 † | $26,500 | $24,022 | 2.5 |
| 34 | University of Cincinnati-Main Campus Cincinnati, OH Public · 4-year | $74,145 | 27 † | $21,942 | $25,648 | 2.7 |
| 35 | Saint Edward's University Austin, TX Private nonprofit · 4-year | $74,059 | 29 † | $23,593 | $25,578 | 2.6 |
| 36 | Southern New Hampshire University Manchester, NH Private nonprofit · 4-year | $73,271 | 43 | $26,166 | $36,708 | 4.7 |
| 37 | Appalachian State University Boone, NC Public · 4-year | $72,852 | 30 † | $26,691 | $16,836 | 1.7 |
| 38 | The University of Texas at Arlington Arlington, TX Public · 4-year | $72,486 | 59 | $18,751 | $13,951 | 1.5 |
| 39 | University of Arkansas Fayetteville, AR Public · 4-year | $71,486 | 31 † | $18,665 | $18,209 | 1.9 |
| 40 | Illinois State University Normal, IL Public · 4-year | $71,058 | 33 † | $19,119 | $19,398 | 2.2 |
| 41 | Rollins College Winter Park, FL Private nonprofit · 4-year | $69,695 | 46 | $25,000 | $34,732 | 3.9 |
| 42 | University of North Carolina at Charlotte Charlotte, NC Public · 4-year | $69,467 | 35 † | $21,250 | $15,435 | 1.7 |
| 43 | Rider University Lawrenceville, NJ Private nonprofit · 4-year | $69,451 | 30 † | $27,000 | $24,792 | 3.1 |
| 44 | The University of Texas at Dallas Richardson, TX Public · 4-year | $69,370 | 39 † | $18,750 | $18,267 | 2.1 |
| 45 | San Diego State University San Diego, CA Public · 4-year | $69,141 | 74 | $13,110 | $15,364 | 1.9 |
| 46 | University of North Florida Jacksonville, FL Public · 4-year | $68,527 | 39 † | $14,393 | $10,154 | 1.2 |
| 47 | University of Houston-Downtown Houston, TX Public · 4-year | $66,556 | 51 | $14,000 | $10,542 | 1.3 |
| 48 | Oklahoma State University-Main Campus Stillwater, OK Public · 4-year | $66,385 | 42 | $22,650 | $17,447 | 2.2 |
| 49 | University of South Florida Tampa, FL Public · 4-year | $66,141 | 48 | $17,343 | $9,812 | 1.2 |
| 50 | Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Baton Rouge, LA Public · 4-year | $65,326 | 35 † | $17,625 | $19,151 | 2.5 |
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 International Business (CIP 5211, 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 66.
- 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 International Business 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pennsylvania | $83,255 | 6 | Villanova University |
| Ohio | $74,183 | 3 | University of Dayton |
| California | $72,483 | 4 | University of San Diego |
| New York | $71,365 | 4 | Fordham University |
| North Carolina | $69,467 | 3 | Appalachian State University |
| Texas | $67,963 | 6 | Saint Edward's University |
| Florida | $67,334 | 6 | The University of Tampa |
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