Education Atlas

College Scorecard · cost, debt & earnings

Clemson University

Clemson, SC · Public · Bachelor-granting · 23,300 undergrads · 38% admitted

Do students finish?
87% complete

Most students who start here finish.

What does it cost?
$35,015/yr net

Average annual price after grants & scholarships. ~$140,060 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.

$71,513 median, 10 yrs after entry
25th pct $46,322 median $71,513 75th pct $100,350

83% 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.

49 Bachelor's programs · $19,596 to $70,368 (1 yr out)

MajorPay · 1yr outMedian debt
Chemical Engineering.Bachelor's $70,368 $20,500
Information Science/Studies.Bachelor's $66,717 $25,225
Computer Engineering.Bachelor's $66,632 $26,179
Mechanical Engineering.Bachelor's $66,398 $21,665
Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering.Bachelor's $66,228 $24,250
Industrial Engineering.Bachelor's $65,182 $24,000
Engineering-Related Fields.Bachelor's $65,136 $22,622
Computer and Information Sciences, General.Bachelor's $63,762 $21,611
Materials Engineering.Bachelor's $63,207 $25,246
Construction Management.Bachelor's $62,908 $19,962
Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing.Bachelor's $61,981 $18,629
Civil Engineering.Bachelor's $58,507 $21,912
Environmental/Environmental Health Engineering.Bachelor's $54,819 $20,500
Agricultural Engineering.Bachelor's $54,666 —
Biomedical/Medical Engineering.Bachelor's $54,462 $21,375
Finance and Financial Management Services.Bachelor's $52,256 $19,312
Mathematics.Bachelor's $49,691 $22,500
Marketing.Bachelor's $48,888 $21,500
Accounting and Related Services.Bachelor's $45,516 $21,500
Architecture.Bachelor's $44,793 $21,500
Agricultural Business and Management.Bachelor's $43,546 $21,500
Forestry.Bachelor's $43,121 $22,875
Business Administration, Management and Operations.Bachelor's $42,536 $20,500
Design and Applied Arts.Bachelor's $41,708 $23,250
Economics.Bachelor's $41,128 $20,277
Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Subject Areas.Bachelor's $40,689 $21,500
Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, Other.Bachelor's $38,392 $21,840
Political Science and Government.Bachelor's $38,210 $20,500
Rhetoric and Composition/Writing Studies.Bachelor's $38,156 $20,250
Microbiological Sciences and Immunology.Bachelor's $37,067 $23,884
Special Education and Teaching.Bachelor's $36,090 —
Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Levels and Methods.Bachelor's $33,955 $23,638
Parks, Recreation, and Leisure Facilities Management.Bachelor's $33,548 $19,500
English Language and Literature, General.Bachelor's $32,696 $21,021
Food Science and Technology.Bachelor's $32,141 $22,500
Natural Resources Conservation and Research.Bachelor's $31,797 $21,200
Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology.Bachelor's $29,496 $21,750
Plant Sciences.Bachelor's $29,446 $20,500
History.Bachelor's $28,980 $20,500
Sociology.Bachelor's $28,851 $22,500
Linguistic, Comparative, and Related Language Studies and Services.Bachelor's $28,742 $22,250
Psychology, General.Bachelor's $28,522 $20,500
Genetics.Bachelor's $28,199 $21,500
Animal Sciences.Bachelor's $27,954 $21,500
Health Professions and Related Clinical Sciences, Other.Bachelor's $27,529 $19,500
Agricultural Production Operations.Bachelor's $26,805 $22,625
Visual and Performing Arts, Other.Bachelor's $24,202 $22,250
Biology, General.Bachelor's $21,728 $20,500
Fine and Studio Arts.Bachelor's $19,596 —

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
$19,000
≈ 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 (70 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