How big is student debt compared with pay, by major?

Graduates in the 20 most common bachelor's majors borrow similar amounts in federal student loans at the typical college, but their pay differs widely. For teacher education graduates, that debt equaled 51% of a year's earnings four years after graduating; for computer science graduates, 21%. Debt is the median of colleges' median federal loan debt for graduates who borrowed (private and parent loans not counted). Earnings cover only graduates who received federal aid and were working.

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Bars are sorted from highest to lowest and start at zero; each one's value is at its end.

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Key facts

Measure: Typical federal loan debt as a percent of a year's earnings. Written from the data below.

  • Teacher education has the highest figure, 51.2%, followed by Psychology (46.1%) and English (45.3%).
  • Computer science has the lowest figure, 20.6%, followed by Computer and information sciences (24.6%) and Mechanical engineering (24.9%).
  • The highest is 2.5 times the lowest.

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Source and date

Source
U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard
License
Public domain (U.S. government work)
Data as of
Published

Citation

Chartly. “How big is student debt compared with pay, by major?” Chart. Data: U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard, https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/data/ (data as of December 31, 2023). https://chart.ly/charts/student-debt-vs-earnings-by-major (accessed November 4, 2026).

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The data

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The file has the numbers in this table, with the source, license and date. Please credit the source and Chartly. Developers can also get them as JSON (how).

Major (bachelor's degree) Typical federal loan debt as a percent of a year's earnings
Teacher education 51.2
Psychology 46.1
English 45.3
Social work 44.9
Kinesiology and physical education 44.4
Criminal justice 44.3
Liberal arts and general studies 43.6
Sociology 43
Biology 40.8
Communication and media studies 40.8
Business administration and management 34.2
Political science 34
Marketing 32.5
Accounting 30.2
Finance 26
Nursing 25.8
Economics 25.1
Mechanical engineering 24.9
Computer and information sciences 24.6
Computer science 20.6

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