College Scorecard · cost, debt & earnings

Brown University

Providence, RI · Private nonprofit · Bachelor-granting · 7,226 undergrads · 5% admitted

Do students finish?

96% complete

Most students who start here finish.

What does it cost?

$87,648/yr net

Average annual price after grants & scholarships. ~$350,592 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.

$93,487 median, 10 yrs after entry

25th pct $63,520 median $93,487 75th pct $164,436

87% 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.

19 Bachelor's programs · $19,547 to $130,101 (1 yr out)

MajorPay · 1yr outMedian debt

Computer Science.Bachelor's $130,101 $11,500

Applied Mathematics.Bachelor's $105,532 $10,000

Engineering, General.Bachelor's $70,583 $15,000

Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations.Bachelor's $66,171 $18,000

Economics.Bachelor's $64,028 $13,000

Political Science and Government.Bachelor's $50,186 $14,481

Public Policy Analysis.Bachelor's $49,331 $10,000

Public Health.Bachelor's $42,643 $11,760

History.Bachelor's $42,584 $13,491

Neurobiology and Neurosciences.Bachelor's $40,809 $9,250

International Relations and National Security Studies.Bachelor's $37,882 $12,000

Research and Experimental Psychology.Bachelor's $37,636 $15,110

Area Studies.Bachelor's $37,471 $12,000

Natural Resources Conservation and Research.Bachelor's $30,489 —

Biology, General.Bachelor's $29,535 $13,000

Linguistic, Comparative, and Related Language Studies and Services.Bachelor's $28,130 —

English Language and Literature, General.Bachelor's $28,046 $12,974

Urban Studies/Affairs.Bachelor's $23,206 $14,000

Sociology.Bachelor's $19,547 —

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

$10,000

≈ 11% 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 (26 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