Education Atlas

College Scorecard · cost, debt & earnings

Bowling Green State University-Main Campus

Bowling Green, OH · Public · Bachelor-granting · 12,812 undergrads · 81% admitted

Do students finish?
64% complete

Most students who start here finish.

What does it cost?
$33,007/yr net

Average annual price after grants & scholarships. ~$132,028 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.

$47,896 median, 10 yrs after entry
25th pct $31,725 median $47,896 75th pct $67,179

74% 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.

56 Bachelor's programs · $15,876 to $65,119 (1 yr out)

MajorPay · 1yr outMedian debt
Management Information Systems and Services.Bachelor's $65,119 $20,000
Construction Engineering.Bachelor's $63,158 $26,000
Engineering-Related Fields.Bachelor's $61,973 $25,500
Computer Engineering.Bachelor's $60,054 $26,637
Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing.Bachelor's $58,479 $25,000
Clinical/Medical Laboratory Science/Research and Allied Professions.Bachelor's $58,159 —
Engineering/Engineering-Related Technologies/Technicians, Other.Bachelor's $56,435 $17,321
International Business.Bachelor's $55,186 $26,500
Business Administration, Management and Operations.Bachelor's $55,153 $23,738
General Sales, Merchandising and Related Marketing Operations.Bachelor's $55,026 $25,000
Information Science/Studies.Bachelor's $52,802 $25,000
Finance and Financial Management Services.Bachelor's $51,770 $23,250
Accounting and Related Services.Bachelor's $51,352 $21,211
Mathematics.Bachelor's $49,779 $20,621
Allied Health Diagnostic, Intervention, and Treatment Professions.Bachelor's $43,482 —
Marketing.Bachelor's $41,918 $23,250
Air Transportation.Bachelor's $40,383 $21,500
Environmental Design.Bachelor's $40,015 $25,072
Health and Medical Administrative Services.Bachelor's $39,448 $25,498
Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied Communication.Bachelor's $39,046 $22,519
Economics.Bachelor's $37,428 $23,625
Computer and Information Sciences, General.Bachelor's $36,793 $31,000
Business/Commerce, General.Bachelor's $36,771 $23,111
Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Subject Areas.Bachelor's $36,530 $26,994
Interior Architecture.Bachelor's $36,511 $27,000
Special Education and Teaching.Bachelor's $34,875 $26,000
Chemistry.Bachelor's $34,300 $24,250
Social Work.Bachelor's $34,024 $27,000
Health Professions and Related Clinical Sciences, Other.Bachelor's $33,975 $22,250
Design and Applied Arts.Bachelor's $33,970 $27,000
Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Levels and Methods.Bachelor's $33,800 $25,000
Graphic Communications.Bachelor's $33,166 $26,338
Criminal Justice and Corrections.Bachelor's $32,941 $25,000
Health Services/Allied Health/Health Sciences, General.Bachelor's $32,301 $26,000
Parks, Recreation, and Leisure Studies.Bachelor's $32,248 $26,000
Rhetoric and Composition/Writing Studies.Bachelor's $31,450 $26,000
Journalism.Bachelor's $30,537 $27,000
Sports, Kinesiology, and Physical Education/Fitness.Bachelor's $29,770 $25,000
Sociology.Bachelor's $29,641 $27,000
Environmental/Natural Resources Management and Policy.Bachelor's $29,558 $25,834
Gerontology.Bachelor's $28,599 $26,899
Liberal Arts and Sciences, General Studies and Humanities.Bachelor's $28,391 $29,750
English Language and Literature, General.Bachelor's $28,147 $22,875
Human Development, Family Studies, and Related Services.Bachelor's $27,894 $25,635
Biology, General.Bachelor's $27,176 $24,500
Psychology, General.Bachelor's $27,160 $23,739
Radio, Television, and Digital Communication.Bachelor's $26,854 $27,000
Education, Other.Bachelor's $25,458 $26,000
Fine and Studio Arts.Bachelor's $25,361 $27,000
Political Science and Government.Bachelor's $21,997 $23,760
History.Bachelor's $21,580 $25,000
Visual and Performing Arts, General.Bachelor's $20,360 $26,869
Drama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft.Bachelor's $19,987 $25,250
Film/Video and Photographic Arts.Bachelor's $19,967 $26,000
Dietetics and Clinical Nutrition Services.Bachelor's $19,014 $25,856
Music.Bachelor's $15,876 $27,000

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
$17,500
≈ 37% 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. And because students who drop out borrow less, a school where many students don't finish can show a deceptively low debt figure — read it next to the completion rate above.

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 (79 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