College Scorecard · cost, debt & earnings

Colorado State University-Fort Collins

Fort Collins, CO · Public · Bachelor-granting · 25,538 undergrads · 89% admitted

Do students finish?

67% complete

Most students who start here finish.

What does it cost?

$31,642/yr net

Average annual price after grants & scholarships. ~$126,568 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.

$60,543 median, 10 yrs after entry

25th pct $40,471 median $60,543 75th pct $88,212

78% 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 · $23,926 to $76,384 (1 yr out)

MajorPay · 1yr outMedian debt

Fire Protection.Bachelor's $76,384 —

Computer Engineering.Bachelor's $74,379 —

Computer and Information Sciences, General.Bachelor's $72,253 $21,569

Construction Engineering Technology/Technician.Bachelor's $69,069 $23,500

Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering.Bachelor's $68,629 $25,176

Mechanical Engineering.Bachelor's $63,141 $25,708

Information Science/Studies.Bachelor's $61,555 $23,869

Civil Engineering.Bachelor's $61,143 $25,000

Chemical Engineering.Bachelor's $56,279 $20,549

Biomedical/Medical Engineering.Bachelor's $55,849 —

Environmental/Environmental Health Engineering.Bachelor's $53,162 $26,747

Public Health.Bachelor's $47,766 —

Business Administration, Management and Operations.Bachelor's $47,134 $19,500

Geological and Earth Sciences/Geosciences.Bachelor's $45,548 $22,250

Design and Applied Arts.Bachelor's $45,202 —

Biotechnology.Bachelor's $41,797 $18,386

Economics.Bachelor's $41,108 $21,500

Agricultural Business and Management.Bachelor's $39,874 $20,500

Hospitality Administration/Management.Bachelor's $39,409 $18,500

Apparel and Textiles.Bachelor's $38,821 $19,563

Soil Sciences.Bachelor's $38,645 $16,500

Mathematics.Bachelor's $38,248 $15,679

Applied Horticulture and Horticultural Business Services.Bachelor's $38,139 —

Chemistry.Bachelor's $37,838 $16,500

Forestry.Bachelor's $37,221 $22,073

Liberal Arts and Sciences, General Studies and Humanities.Bachelor's $36,098 $22,996

Communication and Media Studies.Bachelor's $36,094 $20,500

Animal Sciences.Bachelor's $35,832 $21,500

Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Levels and Methods.Bachelor's $34,175 —

Ethnic, Cultural Minority, Gender, and Group Studies.Bachelor's $33,757 —

Social Work.Bachelor's $33,713 $18,950

Microbiological Sciences and Immunology.Bachelor's $33,538 $20,500

Political Science and Government.Bachelor's $32,419 $18,500

Sociology.Bachelor's $32,418 $19,746

Plant Sciences.Bachelor's $32,363 $17,500

Journalism.Bachelor's $32,150 $21,000

Sports, Kinesiology, and Physical Education/Fitness.Bachelor's $31,921 $20,500

Human Development, Family Studies, and Related Services.Bachelor's $30,953 $20,425

Nutrition Sciences.Bachelor's $30,936 $22,000

Natural Resources Conservation and Research.Bachelor's $30,745 $14,000

Psychology, General.Bachelor's $30,567 $21,000

Ecology, Evolution, Systematics, and Population Biology.Bachelor's $30,566 $19,500

Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology.Bachelor's $29,864 $21,500

Linguistic, Comparative, and Related Language Studies and Services.Bachelor's $29,741 $15,479

Music.Bachelor's $28,727 $26,837

Biology, General.Bachelor's $28,687 $21,500

Philosophy.Bachelor's $28,017 $16,500

Fine and Studio Arts.Bachelor's $27,724 $20,500

Parks, Recreation, and Leisure Facilities Management.Bachelor's $27,454 $19,250

International/Globalization Studies.Bachelor's $27,432 $19,296

History.Bachelor's $27,429 $21,500

English Language and Literature, General.Bachelor's $27,345 $19,500

Anthropology.Bachelor's $26,694 $21,500

Zoology/Animal Biology.Bachelor's $25,599 $23,875

Agricultural and Domestic Animal Services.Bachelor's $25,239 $21,968

Drama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft.Bachelor's $23,926 —

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

$14,750

≈ 24% 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 (84 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