Education Atlas

College Scorecard · cost, debt & earnings

Florida Atlantic University

Boca Raton, FL · Public · Bachelor-granting · 23,757 undergrads · 66% admitted

Do students finish?
63% complete

Most students who start here finish.

What does it cost?
$21,522/yr net

Average annual price after grants & scholarships. ~$86,088 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.

$56,746 median, 10 yrs after entry
25th pct $37,067 median $56,746 75th pct $81,414

74% 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.

45 Bachelor's programs · $16,750 to $61,746 (1 yr out)

MajorPay · 1yr outMedian debt
Ocean Engineering.Bachelor's $61,746 $27,000
Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing.Bachelor's $61,372 $17,050
Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering.Bachelor's $61,298 $18,425
Mechanical Engineering.Bachelor's $60,965 $20,875
Computer Engineering.Bachelor's $58,039 $23,000
Civil Engineering.Bachelor's $56,133 $23,300
Computer and Information Sciences, General.Bachelor's $53,717 $16,988
Accounting and Related Services.Bachelor's $47,737 $16,452
Management Information Systems and Services.Bachelor's $45,408 $16,250
City/Urban, Community, and Regional Planning.Bachelor's $44,273 $21,114
Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Subject Areas.Bachelor's $43,491 $22,250
Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Levels and Methods.Bachelor's $43,319 $16,791
Chemistry.Bachelor's $42,299 $22,128
Environmental Design.Bachelor's $42,280 $14,347
Finance and Financial Management Services.Bachelor's $41,875 $15,458
Mathematics.Bachelor's $41,420 $19,223
Architecture.Bachelor's $39,980 $30,749
Marketing.Bachelor's $39,668 $16,875
Business Administration, Management and Operations.Bachelor's $39,428 $17,238
Public Administration.Bachelor's $38,640 $17,000
Health and Medical Administrative Services.Bachelor's $36,827 $15,000
Economics.Bachelor's $35,236 $18,000
Education, General.Bachelor's $34,862 $16,869
Multi-/Interdisciplinary Studies, General.Bachelor's $33,959 $19,111
Hospitality Administration/Management.Bachelor's $33,519 $20,000
Criminal Justice and Corrections.Bachelor's $33,474 $15,450
International Business.Bachelor's $32,352 $15,250
Social Work.Bachelor's $31,638 $17,744
Communication and Media Studies.Bachelor's $31,103 $18,375
Homeland Security, Law Enforcement, Firefighting and Related Protective Services, Other.Bachelor's $30,438 $18,375
Political Science and Government.Bachelor's $30,266 $16,875
English Language and Literature, General.Bachelor's $30,091 $17,750
Sports, Kinesiology, and Physical Education/Fitness.Bachelor's $29,567 $18,117
Sociology.Bachelor's $29,349 $18,500
Liberal Arts and Sciences, General Studies and Humanities.Bachelor's $27,739 $19,201
Psychology, General.Bachelor's $27,034 $16,048
Fine and Studio Arts.Bachelor's $26,861 $13,867
History.Bachelor's $26,487 $16,514
Romance Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics.Bachelor's $26,469
Biology, General.Bachelor's $26,231 $16,028
Anthropology.Bachelor's $25,455 $18,500
Radio, Television, and Digital Communication.Bachelor's $25,435 $16,000
Research and Experimental Psychology.Bachelor's $21,190 $17,695
Drama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft.Bachelor's $17,482 $22,250
Arts, Entertainment, and Media Management.Bachelor's $16,750

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
$12,500
22% 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 (66 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