---
title: Is a Nuclear Engineering degree worth the debt?
cip: 1423
source: U.S. Dept. of Education College Scorecard — Field of Study (2026-06-10 release)
sourceId: src:doe:college-scorecard:field-of-study:2026-06-10
---

# Is a Nuclear Engineering degree worth the debt?

Leading with the **Bachelor's**, across **12** colleges (12 of 12 programs report earnings):

- **Median pay, 1 year after completion:** $62,968 ($62,840 at 2 years)
- **Median federal debt:** $21,963 (federal loans only)
- **Debt-to-earnings:** 0.37× a first year's pay
- **Across-college spread (middle 50%):** $50,627–$67,320 — the program you choose moves the number this much.


**How to read this:** these are MEDIANS across college programs, measured **1–2 years after completion** (early career, graduates only) — NOT lifetime earnings, and NOT comparable to a college's 10-years-after-entry figure. They cover **federally-aided completers at programs large enough to report**; small programs are suppressed. A field median is not a prediction of your outcome, not causal (who enters a field differs by field), and **not a "best majors" ranking** — earnings are one dimension of worth. Verify by field at the official College Scorecard (https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/).

## By degree level

| Level | Pay (1yr) | Federal debt | Debt/pay | Colleges | Programs reporting |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Bachelor's | $62,968 | $21,963 | 0.37× | 12 | 12/12 |

## Where a Bachelor's in this field reports the highest early-career pay

Reflects who enrolls and where, not causal program quality.

| College | Pay (1yr) | Federal debt |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus (GA) | $73,557 | $21,426 |
| Texas A&M University-College Station (TX) | $70,571 | $18,471 |
| Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (NY) | $70,021 | $19,500 |
| North Carolina State University at Raleigh (NC) | $66,420 | $23,250 |
| University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (IL) | $65,618 | $20,500 |
| Purdue University-Main Campus (IN) | $63,891 | $20,250 |
| Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus (PA) | $62,046 | $24,623 |
| Missouri University of Science and Technology (MO) | $52,882 | $22,773 |
| The University of Tennessee-Knoxville (TN) | $51,780 | $22,500 |
| Oregon State University (OR) | $47,169 | $27,000 |
| Oregon State University-Cascades Campus (OR) | $47,169 | $27,000 |
| University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (MI) | $41,147 | $20,500 |

RECORDED College Scorecard figures + one DERIVED ratio (debt-to-earnings). Informs and compares; not advice on what to major in. Each college's full record: `/education/<slug>`.

Structured data: `/education/fields/nuclear-engineering.jsonld` · `/education/fields/nuclear-engineering.json`