Education Atlas

College Scorecard · cost, debt & earnings

Coastal Carolina University

Conway, SC · Public · Bachelor-granting · 10,377 undergrads · 75% admitted

Do students finish?
48% complete

A large share of students do not finish; the cost is the same whether or not you graduate.

What does it cost?
$26,692/yr net

Average annual price after grants & scholarships. ~$106,768 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.

$47,258 median, 10 yrs after entry
25th pct $30,885 median $47,258 75th pct $67,776

71% 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.

26 Bachelor's programs · $17,780 to $63,888 (1 yr out)

MajorPay · 1yr outMedian debt
Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing.Bachelor's $63,888 $16,666
Computer and Information Sciences, General.Bachelor's $44,161 $27,000
Information Science/Studies.Bachelor's $42,727 $20,336
Finance and Financial Management Services.Bachelor's $42,464 $25,683
Accounting and Related Services.Bachelor's $42,430 $25,000
Marketing.Bachelor's $37,250 $25,500
Business Administration, Management and Operations.Bachelor's $36,101 $23,250
Special Education and Teaching.Bachelor's $35,908 $25,563
Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Levels and Methods.Bachelor's $33,586 $25,565
Intelligence, Command Control and Information Operations.Bachelor's $32,303 $23,250
Hospitality Administration/Management.Bachelor's $32,183 $23,250
Political Science and Government.Bachelor's $29,976 $24,250
Sociology.Bachelor's $28,181 $22,500
Public Health.Bachelor's $27,315 $25,625
Communication and Media Studies.Bachelor's $27,019 $22,333
Biology, General.Bachelor's $26,355 $24,375
Liberal Arts and Sciences, General Studies and Humanities.Bachelor's $25,854 $25,225
History.Bachelor's $25,459 $25,062
Psychology, General.Bachelor's $25,418 $25,479
Ecology, Evolution, Systematics, and Population Biology.Bachelor's $24,662 $23,973
Sports, Kinesiology, and Physical Education/Fitness.Bachelor's $24,273 $25,000
English Language and Literature, General.Bachelor's $22,701 $23,000
Design and Applied Arts.Bachelor's $19,827 $25,000
Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology.Bachelor's $18,094 $27,000
Fine and Studio Arts.Bachelor's $17,783 $20,000
Drama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft.Bachelor's $17,780 $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
$16,979
36% 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 (32 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