Education Atlas

College Scorecard · cost, debt & earnings

Auburn University

Auburn, AL · Public · Bachelor-granting · 26,816 undergrads · 46% admitted

Do students finish?
82% complete

Most students who start here finish.

What does it cost?
$34,919/yr net

Average annual price after grants & scholarships. ~$139,676 over four years if you finish on time.

What former students go on to earn

The middle 50% of students who received federal aid, measured 10 years after they entered (an earlier entering class — not a guarantee, and not limited to those who graduated). Earnings vary enormously by field of study.

$65,337 median, 10 yrs after entry
25th pct $43,620 median $65,337 75th pct $95,597

80% earn more than a typical high-school graduate (the dashed line above, $28,000 — a fixed, somewhat dated federal benchmark) ten years on.

Your major matters more than your school

The school-wide figure above blends every major together — but pay varies enormously by program. Pick a degree level (and search your major) to compare like-for-like.

Read these on their own terms. Program pay is measured 1 year after completing the program (early career, graduates only) — not the same as the school-wide number above, which is 10 years after a student first enrolled. Don't compare a program figure to the school figure; use the programs to compare majors to each other.

46 Bachelor's programs · $19,757 to $75,285 (1 yr out)

MajorPay · 1yr outMedian debt
Chemical Engineering.Bachelor's $75,285 $22,604
Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering.Bachelor's $72,274 $22,500
Architectural Engineering.Bachelor's $71,073 $21,375
Mechanical Engineering.Bachelor's $67,127 $23,250
Industrial Engineering.Bachelor's $66,558 $23,250
Computer Engineering.Bachelor's $63,168 $20,000
Aerospace, Aeronautical, and Astronautical/Space Engineering.Bachelor's $63,127 $20,417
Computer and Information Sciences, General.Bachelor's $62,372 $25,000
Civil Engineering.Bachelor's $57,886 $21,750
Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing.Bachelor's $56,128 $20,449
Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods.Bachelor's $54,362 $23,250
Accounting and Related Services.Bachelor's $54,118 $21,250
Business Administration, Management and Operations.Bachelor's $52,995 $20,750
Biological/Biosystems Engineering.Bachelor's $51,452 $25,747
Architecture.Bachelor's $50,456 $28,000
Agricultural Business and Management.Bachelor's $47,415 $20,500
Forestry.Bachelor's $47,039 $18,750
Finance and Financial Management Services.Bachelor's $46,598 $19,500
Marketing.Bachelor's $44,504 $19,500
Hospitality Administration/Management.Bachelor's $42,369 $24,500
Economics.Bachelor's $41,887
Human Resources Management and Services.Bachelor's $40,252
Apparel and Textiles.Bachelor's $38,625 $20,500
Animal Sciences.Bachelor's $37,905 $19,500
Design and Applied Arts.Bachelor's $37,862 $25,125
Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Subject Areas.Bachelor's $37,452 $21,750
Plant Sciences.Bachelor's $37,144 $17,750
Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Levels and Methods.Bachelor's $36,812 $21,723
Public Administration.Bachelor's $35,723
Special Education and Teaching.Bachelor's $35,666 $22,000
Political Science and Government.Bachelor's $35,032 $20,500
Multi-/Interdisciplinary Studies, General.Bachelor's $34,513 $21,750
Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied Communication.Bachelor's $34,482 $23,000
Health and Medical Administrative Services.Bachelor's $34,378 $24,000
Social Work.Bachelor's $33,955 $20,500
Sociology.Bachelor's $32,601 $19,500
English Language and Literature, General.Bachelor's $31,491 $22,750
Journalism.Bachelor's $30,959 $19,213
Communication and Media Studies.Bachelor's $30,492 $18,625
History.Bachelor's $28,017 $20,750
Physiology, Pathology and Related Sciences.Bachelor's $27,192 $21,500
Wildlife and Wildlands Science and Management.Bachelor's $26,293 $21,750
Human Development, Family Studies, and Related Services.Bachelor's $25,613 $21,500
Biology, General.Bachelor's $23,818 $23,250
Psychology, General.Bachelor's $22,796 $19,085
Fine and Studio Arts.Bachelor's $19,757

The Dept. of Education omits programs with too few graduates (to protect privacy), so not every major appears. Pay is a median for federally-aided graduates. Full program detail on the official Scorecard.

Typical federal loan debt
$17,750
27% of one year's typical earnings here

This counts federal student loans only — not private loans, Parent PLUS loans, or family savings, so the true cost of borrowing is usually higher.

What these numbers are — and are not

Every figure here is an institution-wide median from the U.S. Dept. of Education College Scorecard. It is not a prediction of what you would earn or owe — a computer-science and a fine-arts graduate of the same school can earn wildly different amounts, and your field of study matters more than your school. It is not a figure for any one program, not proof the school caused the outcome (selective schools admit students who would earn more anyway), and not a "best college" ranking. Earnings and debt cover federally-aided students.

→ The number that actually answers "worth it" is earnings by major — see the by-major breakdown above (66 programs at this school).

Also available: structured data (JSON-LD) · plain text · JSON. Source: U.S. Dept. of Education College Scorecard (2026-06-10 release). · school website