Education Atlas

College Scorecard · cost, debt & earnings

DePaul University

Chicago, IL · Private nonprofit · Bachelor-granting · 14,090 undergrads · 76% admitted

Do students finish?
68% complete

Most students who start here finish.

What does it cost?
$63,052/yr net

Average annual price after grants & scholarships. ~$252,208 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.

$68,751 median, 10 yrs after entry
25th pct $42,705 median $68,751 75th pct $101,987

79% 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 · $17,798 to $61,704 (1 yr out)

MajorPay · 1yr outMedian debt
Accounting and Related Services.Bachelor's $61,704 $24,000
Management Information Systems and Services.Bachelor's $61,445 $21,500
Liberal Arts and Sciences, General Studies and Humanities.Bachelor's $59,652 $37,499
Computer Systems Networking and Telecommunications.Bachelor's $56,840 $22,166
Business/Managerial Economics.Bachelor's $56,409 $20,670
Finance and Financial Management Services.Bachelor's $55,552 $22,000
Computer Programming.Bachelor's $51,868 $24,500
Computer and Information Sciences, General.Bachelor's $51,570 $21,666
Marketing.Bachelor's $48,012 $23,000
Economics.Bachelor's $45,884 $20,000
Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods.Bachelor's $45,236 $22,859
Hospitality Administration/Management.Bachelor's $43,199 $16,500
Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Subject Areas.Bachelor's $42,009 $25,500
Information Science/Studies.Bachelor's $41,497 $24,000
Business Administration, Management and Operations.Bachelor's $40,729 $23,051
Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Levels and Methods.Bachelor's $40,627 $27,000
Mathematics.Bachelor's $40,548 $24,846
Public Policy Analysis.Bachelor's $39,789 —
Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied Communication.Bachelor's $38,478 $22,332
Political Science and Government.Bachelor's $37,484 $22,449
Health Services/Allied Health/Health Sciences, General.Bachelor's $33,464 $26,500
Design and Applied Arts.Bachelor's $32,912 $27,000
Communication and Media Studies.Bachelor's $31,913 $20,834
English Language and Literature, General.Bachelor's $31,739 $22,956
International Relations and National Security Studies.Bachelor's $30,920 $20,094
Psychology, General.Bachelor's $30,341 $24,750
Philosophy.Bachelor's $29,611 —
History.Bachelor's $29,281 $27,000
Journalism.Bachelor's $29,031 $21,666
Sociology.Bachelor's $28,832 $23,166
Area Studies.Bachelor's $28,163 $24,500
Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution.Bachelor's $26,553 $24,500
Biology, General.Bachelor's $25,467 $26,600
Natural Resources Conservation and Research.Bachelor's $25,318 $24,500
Romance Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics.Bachelor's $24,694 $27,000
Drama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft.Bachelor's $24,597 $26,348
Film/Video and Photographic Arts.Bachelor's $24,417 $24,000
Computer Software and Media Applications.Bachelor's $22,325 $24,999
Music.Bachelor's $19,662 $22,379
Graphic Communications.Bachelor's $19,606 $25,000
Fine and Studio Arts.Bachelor's $17,798 $26,175

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
$19,383
≈ 28% 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 (79 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