Bachelor’s degree · earnings 4 years after completing
Highest-Paying Colleges for Social Sciences (Bachelor's)
Graduates who complete a bachelor's degree in Social Sciences earn a median of $53,366 four years after finishing, and the middle half earn between $36,590 and $72,257. We rank the 56 U.S. colleges whose Social Sciences programs have at least 25 graduates in the Scorecard earnings sample, 5,130 graduates in all. That puts Social Sciences at #93 of 131 bachelor's degree fields we rank by national median earnings.
Vanderbilt University, in Tennessee, leads at $103,229, 97% above the median ranked school ($52,308). The gap between schools is moderate: the middle half of ranked schools earn between $47,280 and $57,896, and the lowest earns $33,423. 25 of the 56 ranked schools (45%) match or beat the national median.
The top 20 mix sectors: 12 public, 8 private nonprofit and 0 for-profit. New York places 4 schools in the top 20, ahead of Washington (3).
The top 20 schools cost more than most: a median net price of $18,756 a year, against $16,200 across all 56 ranked schools. Their graduates who borrowed carry a median of $21,500 in federal loans, about 36% 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 2.8 years.
Showing the top 50 of 56 ranked schools. Select a column heading to re-sort the table. † = fewer than 40 graduates in the earnings sample.
| 1 | Vanderbilt University Nashville, TN Private nonprofit · 4-year | $103,229 | 107 | $12,250 | $15,846 | 0.9 |
| 2 | New York University New York, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $91,917 | 71 | $27,000 | $37,050 | 2.6 |
| 3 | Harvard University Cambridge, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $78,996 | 73 | $22,750 | $19,066 | 2.0 |
| 4 | University of Washington-Seattle Campus Seattle, WA Public · 4-year | $75,301 | 73 | $18,268 | $14,091 | 1.6 |
| 5 | Campbell University Buies Creek, NC Private nonprofit · 4-year | $71,052 | 25 † | — | $24,516 | 2.7 |
| 6 | California State University-San Marcos San Marcos, CA Public · 4-year | $63,622 | 32 † | $15,000 | $10,229 | 1.5 |
| 7 | Washington State University Pullman, WA Public · 4-year | $61,617 | 372 | $21,551 | $14,971 | 2.9 |
| 8 | The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Edinburg, TX Public · 4-year | $59,440 | 26 † | $17,500 | $4,831 | 0.8 |
| 9 | University of Maryland Global Campus Adelphi, MD Public · 4-year | $59,413 | 131 | $21,657 | $22,063 | 4.0 |
| 10 | St. Joseph's University-New York Brooklyn, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $59,028 | 28 † | $21,375 | $19,035 | 3.3 |
| 11 | Touro University New York, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $58,798 | 51 | $28,334 | $29,627 | 5.1 |
| 12 | Michigan State University East Lansing, MI Public · 4-year | $58,797 | 184 | $28,090 | $19,680 | 3.3 |
| 13 | Central Washington University Ellensburg, WA Public · 4-year | $58,680 | 90 | $18,584 | $18,476 | 4.1 |
| 14 | Florida State University Tallahassee, FL Public · 4-year | $58,460 | 327 | $20,000 | $11,297 | 1.9 |
| 15 | University of Utah Salt Lake City, UT Public · 4-year | $57,708 | 47 | $21,500 | $16,200 | 3.4 |
| 16 | Troy University Troy, AL Public · 4-year | $57,620 | 36 † | $26,000 | $16,527 | 2.6 |
| 17 | University of Oregon Eugene, OR Public · 4-year | $57,532 | 380 | $21,500 | $22,182 | 4.3 |
| 18 | Upper Iowa University Fayette, IA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $57,430 | 34 † | $23,274 | $20,942 | 4.1 |
| 19 | California State University-Monterey Bay Seaside, CA Public · 4-year | $57,200 | 96 | $11,000 | $13,663 | 2.7 |
| 20 | Dominican University New York Orangeburg, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $56,966 | 93 | $25,000 | $41,832 | 7.9 |
| 21 | California State University-Sacramento Sacramento, CA Public · 4-year | $56,363 | 44 | $16,097 | $9,338 | 1.9 |
| 22 | University at Buffalo Buffalo, NY Public · 4-year | $56,257 | 376 | $19,000 | $20,995 | 4.1 |
| 23 | University of North Texas Denton, TX Public · 4-year | $56,026 | 31 † | $20,500 | $15,649 | 3.0 |
| 24 | California State University-Stanislaus Turlock, CA Public · 4-year | $55,109 | 70 | $14,752 | $6,067 | 1.3 |
| 25 | Mercy University Dobbs Ferry, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $55,052 | 100 | $22,699 | $14,072 | 2.9 |
| 26 | Colorado State University Global Denver, CO Public · 4-year | $53,311 | 76 | $26,899 | $16,510 | 5.2 |
| 27 | Portland State University Portland, OR Public · 4-year | $52,562 | 280 | $21,914 | $9,552 | 2.5 |
| 28 | Grand Valley State University Allendale, MI Public · 4-year | $52,520 | 71 | $26,932 | $16,317 | 3.7 |
| 29 | San Diego State University San Diego, CA Public · 4-year | $52,095 | 79 | $20,081 | $15,364 | 4.1 |
| 30 | University of North Dakota Grand Forks, ND Public · 4-year | $52,063 | 29 † | $24,098 | $18,551 | 4.9 |
| 31 | Western Oregon University Monmouth, OR Public · 4-year | $51,921 | 37 † | $23,000 | $17,237 | 4.6 |
| 32 | Tulane University of Louisiana New Orleans, LA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $51,290 | 27 † | $36,787 | $39,949 | 9.4 |
| 33 | California State University-Chico Chico, CA Public · 4-year | $50,845 | 58 | $13,987 | $14,480 | 4.2 |
| 34 | Kansas State University Manhattan, KS Public · 4-year | $50,681 | 104 | $23,500 | $19,406 | 4.9 |
| 35 | Southern New Hampshire University Manchester, NH Private nonprofit · 4-year | $50,491 | 104 | $20,917 | $36,708 | 17.2 |
| 36 | Boise State University Boise, ID Public · 4-year | $49,683 | 40 | $23,900 | $21,610 | 6.6 |
| 37 | Bellevue University Bellevue, NE Private nonprofit · 4-year | $49,304 | 154 | $25,000 | $17,550 | 5.7 |
| 38 | The University of Arizona Global Campus Chandler, AZ Public · 4-year | $48,970 | 52 | $32,813 | — | — |
| 39 | Bard College Annandale-On-Hudson, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $48,751 | 158 | $23,125 | $34,649 | 10.7 |
| 40 | University of South Florida Tampa, FL Public · 4-year | $47,969 | 145 | $20,500 | $9,812 | 2.9 |
| 41 | University of West Florida Pensacola, FL Public · 4-year | $47,535 | 42 | $21,500 | $9,364 | 2.8 |
| 42 | California State University-San Bernardino San Bernardino, CA Public · 4-year | $47,348 | 25 † | — | $4,564 | 1.8 |
| 43 | University of Wisconsin-Stout Menomonie, WI Public · 4-year | $47,074 | 29 † | $24,375 | $17,490 | 7.4 |
| 44 | Texas A&M University-San Antonio San Antonio, TX Public · 4-year | $47,014 | 141 | $17,750 | $11,196 | 3.7 |
| 45 | University of South Carolina Beaufort Bluffton, SC Public · 4-year | $44,888 | 46 | $26,000 | $14,656 | 5.8 |
| 46 | Chowan University Murfreesboro, NC Private nonprofit · 4-year | $44,793 | 25 † | $24,387 | $14,086 | 5.2 |
| 47 | Charleston Southern University Charleston, SC Private nonprofit · 4-year | $44,416 | 28 † | $24,700 | $21,666 | 9.0 |
| 48 | North Carolina Central University Durham, NC Public · 4-year | $43,859 | 102 | $27,000 | $15,359 | 6.3 |
| 49 | University of Wyoming Laramie, WY Public · 4-year | $43,404 | 46 | $16,427 | $13,599 | 12.1 |
| 50 | Southeast Missouri State University Cape Girardeau, MO Public · 4-year | $42,761 | 27 † | $23,323 | $15,882 | 8.0 |
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 Social Sciences (CIP 4501, 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 56.
- 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 Social Sciences 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Washington | $61,617 | 3 | University of Washington-Seattle Campus |
| New York | $56,966 | 7 | New York University |
| Texas | $56,026 | 3 | The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley |
| California | $53,602 | 8 | California State University-San Marcos |
| Oregon | $52,562 | 3 | University of Oregon |
| Florida | $47,969 | 3 | Florida State University |
| North Carolina | $44,793 | 3 | Campbell University |
| South Carolina | $44,416 | 3 | University of South Carolina Beaufort |
Related majors
Other fields to compare, by what graduates earn.
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