Education Atlas

College Scorecard · cost, debt & earnings

California State University-Fullerton

Fullerton, CA · Public · Bachelor-granting · 38,546 undergrads · 91% admitted

Do students finish?
70% complete

Most students who start here finish.

What does it cost?
$18,269/yr net

Average annual price after grants & scholarships. ~$73,076 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.

$62,951 median, 10 yrs after entry
25th pct $39,060 median $62,951 75th pct $89,304

76% 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.

41 Bachelor's programs · $15,647 to $86,611 (1 yr out)

MajorPay · 1yr outMedian debt
Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing.Bachelor's $86,611 $12,500
Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering.Bachelor's $67,367 $18,952
Computer Engineering.Bachelor's $65,145 $16,500
Civil Engineering.Bachelor's $59,150 $13,274
Mechanical Engineering.Bachelor's $59,135 $18,874
Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods.Bachelor's $55,575 $12,375
Computer Science.Bachelor's $55,224 $13,750
Information Science/Studies.Bachelor's $43,950 $13,071
Business Administration, Management and Operations.Bachelor's $43,105 $13,982
Public Administration.Bachelor's $42,063 $12,981
Economics.Bachelor's $41,407 $13,750
International Business.Bachelor's $40,680 $21,589
Chemistry.Bachelor's $37,331 $17,377
Communication and Media Studies.Bachelor's $34,333 $13,000
Criminal Justice and Corrections.Bachelor's $32,658 $11,000
Geological and Earth Sciences/Geosciences.Bachelor's $32,227 $16,625
Health Services/Allied Health/Health Sciences, General.Bachelor's $30,740 $15,000
Cell/Cellular Biology and Anatomical Sciences.Bachelor's $30,637 $12,789
Sociology.Bachelor's $30,516 $13,399
Romance Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics.Bachelor's $29,668 $7,345
Political Science and Government.Bachelor's $29,562 $14,869
Geography and Cartography.Bachelor's $29,259 —
Anthropology.Bachelor's $29,149 $16,419
Human Development, Family Studies, and Related Services.Bachelor's $28,602 $12,500
Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology.Bachelor's $27,994 $18,240
Psychology, General.Bachelor's $27,870 $12,502
Sports, Kinesiology, and Physical Education/Fitness.Bachelor's $27,044 $14,250
Area Studies.Bachelor's $26,666 $17,500
Ethnic, Cultural Minority, Gender, and Group Studies.Bachelor's $26,598 $19,500
Philosophy.Bachelor's $26,453 —
Drama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft.Bachelor's $26,021 $15,000
Fine and Studio Arts.Bachelor's $26,006 $15,917
Radio, Television, and Digital Communication.Bachelor's $25,540 $16,500
History.Bachelor's $25,066 $13,812
Communication Disorders Sciences and Services.Bachelor's $24,224 $14,750
Ecology, Evolution, Systematics, and Population Biology.Bachelor's $24,004 $17,387
English Language and Literature, General.Bachelor's $23,697 $13,873
Linguistic, Comparative, and Related Language Studies and Services.Bachelor's $21,792 $12,979
Liberal Arts and Sciences, General Studies and Humanities.Bachelor's $20,155 $12,550
Music.Bachelor's $18,174 $18,000
Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Subject Areas.Bachelor's $15,647 $14,265

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
$12,000
≈ 19% 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 (71 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