Bachelor’s degree · earnings 4 years after completing
Highest-Paying Colleges for Special Education (Bachelor's)
Graduates who complete a bachelor's degree in Special Education earn a median of $50,499 four years after finishing, and the middle half earn between $41,442 and $60,070. We rank the 94 U.S. colleges whose Special Education programs have at least 25 graduates in the Scorecard earnings sample, 6,417 graduates in all. That puts Special Education at #106 of 131 bachelor's degree fields we rank, toward the lower end of the pay scale.
Manhattan University, in New York, leads at $83,932, 64% above the median ranked school ($51,328). Most schools are tightly bunched: the middle half of ranked schools earn between $48,187 and $55,091, and the lowest earns $36,657, so outside the leaders the choice of school moves earnings less than the choice of major. 56 of the 94 ranked schools (60%) match or beat the national median.
Public universities dominate the top 20: 15 public, 5 private nonprofit and 0 for-profit. Across all ranked schools, 82% are public. New York places 5 schools in the top 20, ahead of New Jersey (3).
The top 20 schools cost about the same as the rest of the list: a median net price of $18,585 a year, against $16,932 across all 94 ranked schools. Their graduates who borrowed carry a median of $25,000 in federal loans, about 41% 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 3.2 years.
Showing the top 50 of 94 ranked schools. Select a column heading to re-sort the table. † = fewer than 40 graduates in the earnings sample.
| 1 | Manhattan University Riverdale, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $83,932 | 30 † | $26,246 | $27,256 | 2.3 |
| 2 | Utah State University Logan, UT Public · 4-year | $74,535 | 110 | $11,250 | $14,936 | 1.7 |
| 3 | Seton Hall University South Orange, NJ Private nonprofit · 4-year | $72,067 | 36 † | $25,000 | $31,446 | 3.6 |
| 4 | The College of New Jersey Ewing, NJ Public · 4-year | $66,767 | 79 | $23,625 | $27,646 | 3.7 |
| 5 | Saint Joseph's University - Philadelphia Philadelphia, PA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $64,827 | 38 † | $27,000 | $29,689 | 4.2 |
| 6 | Western Washington University Bellingham, WA Public · 4-year | $64,780 | 90 | $27,000 | $21,193 | 3.5 |
| 7 | Syracuse University Syracuse, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $62,864 | 37 † | $27,000 | $38,793 | 5.7 |
| 8 | SUNY Old Westbury Old Westbury, NY Public · 4-year | $62,389 | 27 † | $18,400 | $11,282 | 1.7 |
| 9 | Kean University Union, NJ Public · 4-year | $61,158 | 135 | $25,479 | $12,447 | 2.1 |
| 10 | University of Connecticut Storrs, CT Public · 4-year | $61,066 | 25 † | — | $25,097 | 4.3 |
| 11 | East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania East Stroudsburg, PA Public · 4-year | $60,391 | 36 † | $25,500 | $18,134 | 3.0 |
| 12 | Southern Connecticut State University New Haven, CT Public · 4-year | $60,365 | 34 † | $25,750 | $20,857 | 3.7 |
| 13 | New Mexico State University-Main Campus Las Cruces, NM Public · 4-year | $58,953 | 41 | $16,996 | $8,889 | 1.3 |
| 14 | Michigan State University East Lansing, MI Public · 4-year | $58,522 | 40 | $26,375 | $19,680 | 3.3 |
| 15 | Florida State University Tallahassee, FL Public · 4-year | $57,573 | 40 | $18,125 | $11,297 | 1.9 |
| 16 | SUNY Buffalo State University Buffalo, NY Public · 4-year | $57,096 | 106 | $19,450 | $11,346 | 2.1 |
| 17 | Towson University Towson, MD Public · 4-year | $56,971 | 78 | $17,089 | $17,413 | 3.6 |
| 18 | Rhode Island College Providence, RI Public · 4-year | $56,477 | 34 † | $25,781 | $9,478 | 2.4 |
| 19 | Arizona State University Campus Immersion Tempe, AZ Public · 4-year | $56,311 | 108 | $17,084 | $14,967 | 3.0 |
| 20 | St. Joseph's University-New York Brooklyn, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $55,812 | 176 | $22,500 | $19,035 | 3.8 |
| 21 | University of Nebraska at Omaha Omaha, NE Public · 4-year | $55,665 | 49 | $21,500 | $13,441 | 2.9 |
| 22 | Auburn University Auburn, AL Public · 4-year | $55,544 | 58 | $22,000 | $24,323 | 4.2 |
| 23 | SUNY at Fredonia Fredonia, NY Public · 4-year | $55,441 | 31 † | $24,500 | $15,897 | 3.2 |
| 24 | California State University-Sacramento Sacramento, CA Public · 4-year | $55,146 | 42 | $16,500 | $9,338 | 2.1 |
| 25 | Providence College Providence, RI Private nonprofit · 4-year | $54,927 | 47 | $27,000 | $48,523 | 13.4 |
| 26 | SUNY College at Geneseo Geneseo, NY Public · 4-year | $54,908 | 54 | $22,500 | $18,211 | 3.8 |
| 27 | Neumann University Aston, PA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $54,846 | 27 † | $27,000 | $27,804 | 6.1 |
| 28 | Kutztown University of Pennsylvania Kutztown, PA Public · 4-year | $54,845 | 67 | $27,000 | $21,331 | 4.7 |
| 29 | Georgia College & State University Milledgeville, GA Public · 4-year | $54,380 | 42 | $24,616 | $20,686 | 4.0 |
| 30 | Eastern Michigan University Ypsilanti, MI Public · 4-year | $54,303 | 28 † | $31,000 | $15,407 | 3.2 |
| 31 | University of Toledo Toledo, OH Public · 4-year | $53,958 | 40 | $20,500 | $17,249 | 3.9 |
| 32 | Northern Arizona University Flagstaff, AZ Public · 4-year | $53,619 | 149 | $20,057 | $14,158 | 3.3 |
| 33 | Indiana University of Pennsylvania Indiana, PA Public · 4-year | $53,494 | 56 | $27,000 | $16,804 | 4.0 |
| 34 | Millersville University of Pennsylvania Millersville, PA Public · 4-year | $53,356 | 51 | $27,000 | $20,787 | 4.9 |
| 35 | Georgia Southern University Statesboro, GA Public · 4-year | $53,272 | 37 † | $21,500 | $15,267 | 3.1 |
| 36 | Northern Illinois University Dekalb, IL Public · 4-year | $53,148 | 50 | $21,029 | $13,391 | 3.1 |
| 37 | Illinois State University Normal, IL Public · 4-year | $52,864 | 123 | $19,500 | $19,398 | 4.6 |
| 38 | University of North Carolina Wilmington Wilmington, NC Public · 4-year | $52,494 | 28 † | $19,039 | $20,109 | 4.4 |
| 39 | University of Arizona Tucson, AZ Public · 4-year | $52,173 | 61 | $19,500 | $16,674 | 4.3 |
| 40 | Western Governors University Salt Lake City, UT Private nonprofit · 4-year | $52,090 | 718 | $17,937 | $12,548 | 3.7 |
| 41 | Indiana University-Bloomington Bloomington, IN Public · 4-year | $52,008 | 41 | $19,500 | $16,264 | 4.2 |
| 42 | Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania Bloomsburg, PA Public · 4-year | $51,949 | 72 | $26,000 | $15,699 | 4.1 |
| 43 | University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Whitewater, WI Public · 4-year | $51,908 | 60 | $27,000 | $14,158 | 4.0 |
| 44 | St Bonaventure University Saint Bonaventure, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $51,664 | 37 † | $27,000 | $27,074 | 6.8 |
| 45 | Minnesota State University-Mankato Mankato, MN Public · 4-year | $51,630 | 37 † | $21,805 | $19,139 | 5.5 |
| 46 | Lewis University Romeoville, IL Private nonprofit · 4-year | $51,522 | 47 | $22,500 | $17,028 | 4.4 |
| 47 | University of Dayton Dayton, OH Private nonprofit · 4-year | $51,389 | 26 † | $19,985 | $29,533 | 7.7 |
| 48 | Ball State University Muncie, IN Public · 4-year | $51,267 | 58 | $22,500 | $14,940 | 4.0 |
| 49 | University of Georgia Athens, GA Public · 4-year | $51,259 | 46 | $19,500 | $13,936 | 3.2 |
| 50 | Ohio University-Main Campus Athens, OH Public · 4-year | $51,258 | 42 | $26,950 | $21,637 | 5.7 |
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 Special Education (CIP 1310, 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 94.
- 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 Special Education 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 Jersey | $63,963 | 4 | Seton Hall University |
| New York | $56,454 | 8 | Manhattan University |
| Pennsylvania | $53,494 | 9 | Saint Joseph's University - Philadelphia |
| Arizona | $52,896 | 4 | Arizona State University Campus Immersion |
| Georgia | $52,266 | 4 | Georgia College & State University |
| Illinois | $52,193 | 4 | Northern Illinois University |
| Michigan | $50,095 | 5 | Michigan State University |
| Minnesota | $49,824 | 3 | Minnesota State University-Mankato |
| North Carolina | $49,301 | 5 | University of North Carolina Wilmington |
| Wisconsin | $47,877 | 5 | University of Wisconsin-Whitewater |
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