Does your major matter more than where you go?
Federal earnings data is published per program, not just per school — and the gap between majors inside one university is usually wider than the gap between universities.
The question we keep seeing
“I got into a higher-ranked school but the cheaper one has a better program for my major. Does the name matter more?”
The short answer
- The U.S. Department of Education publishes median earnings by PROGRAM — each major, at each school, at each degree level.
- Inside a single university, the spread between the best- and worst-paid majors is usually far wider than the spread between schools.
- A school-wide 'average graduate salary' tells you mostly about the mix of majors that school happens to offer.
Almost every college ranking, and almost every campus tour, quotes one earnings figure for the whole institution. It is close to meaningless. The Department of Education has published earnings by field of study since 2019 — broken out by major and degree level — and once you look at that, the school-wide number stops making sense.Footnote 1Source 1U.S. Department of Education — College Scorecard dataPublishes field-of-study data by institution, 4-digit CIP code and credential level, including median earnings measured after completion. Figures for small cohorts are suppressed.collegescorecard.ed.gov
One school, many different outcomes
Take any large public university and pull its program-level figures. A computer science bachelor's and a humanities bachelor's from the same campus, the same year, the same admissions standards, routinely sit tens of thousands of dollars apart at the same point after graduation. That is a much bigger difference than you will find between two universities offering the same major.
So the school-wide median is really a statement about the school's mix of programs. An institution heavy on engineering will post a high number. One with a large education school will post a lower one. Neither figure tells you what YOUR degree is likely to be worth.
Two federal sources, measured differently
There are two, and mixing them up is easy:
- College Scorecard field of study covers nearly every school that takes federal aid, and reports a median one and four years after students COMPLETE their program.Footnote 1Source 1U.S. Department of Education — College Scorecard dataPublishes field-of-study data by institution, 4-digit CIP code and credential level, including median earnings measured after completion. Figures for small cohorts are suppressed.collegescorecard.ed.gov
- Census PSEO is built from actual state wage records, and reports the 25th, 50th and 75th percentiles at one, five and ten years after graduation — but only for states and institutions that volunteered for the programme.Footnote 2Source 2U.S. Census Bureau — Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes (PSEO)Experimental tabulations built from state unemployment-insurance wage records, reporting earnings by institution, degree level and major at 1, 5 and 10 years after graduation. Participation is voluntary and varies by state.lehd.ces.census.gov
The second one matters because it shows the shape of the outcome, not just the middle. A median of $70,000 where the middle half runs from $45,000 to $130,000 is a very different prospect from the same median with a narrow band.
What the earnings number cannot tell you
- Who enrolled. Programs admitting students with more resources tend to post higher earnings for reasons that have little to do with the teaching.
- Where they went. Graduates who cluster in expensive cities post higher nominal salaries that may not go further.
- What you want. A programme that pays less may be the one you will actually finish.
Used carefully, though, it answers a question sticker price cannot: whether a specific programme at a specific school has tended to leave people able to repay what it cost.
Katalyna shows both sources side by side on every school in college matching — Scorecard by program, and where the state took part, PSEO's ten-year figures with the quartile spread.
Try it in Katalyna
College matching
See program-level earnings, cost and outcomes for every school on your list.
Frequently asked
For earnings specifically, program-level data usually separates outcomes more sharply than institutional prestige does. But rankings and earnings are not the only things you are choosing between — fit, cost and whether you will finish all matter more than a small difference in either.
The College Scorecard publishes it by field of study, and Census PSEO adds a ten-year view for participating states. Both are free and public, and Katalyna shows them together per school.
Almost always because the cohort was too small to publish without risking identifying individual graduates. It is a privacy suppression, not a bad result.