Education Atlas

College Scorecard · cost, debt & earnings

Florida State University

Tallahassee, FL · Public · Bachelor-granting · 32,212 undergrads · 24% admitted

Do students finish?
86% complete

Most students who start here finish.

What does it cost?
$25,720/yr net

Average annual price after grants & scholarships. ~$102,880 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.

$61,675 median, 10 yrs after entry
25th pct $40,653 median $61,675 75th pct $90,690

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.

61 Bachelor's programs · $18,659 to $69,881 (1 yr out)

MajorPay · 1yr outMedian debt
Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering.Bachelor's $69,881 $15,750
Chemical Engineering.Bachelor's $66,610 $23,311
Industrial Engineering.Bachelor's $65,561 $19,375
Computer Engineering.Bachelor's $62,442 $23,250
Mechanical Engineering.Bachelor's $62,158 $23,000
Management Information Systems and Services.Bachelor's $59,944 $17,318
Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods.Bachelor's $57,924 $18,522
Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing.Bachelor's $57,588 $19,250
Civil Engineering.Bachelor's $56,990 $18,835
Computer and Information Sciences, General.Bachelor's $54,221 $19,182
Insurance.Bachelor's $53,352 $21,875
Accounting and Related Services.Bachelor's $51,508 $18,212
Finance and Financial Management Services.Bachelor's $51,300 $16,740
Real Estate.Bachelor's $46,748 $19,500
Marketing.Bachelor's $46,163 $17,040
Design and Applied Arts.Bachelor's $44,538 $22,625
Business Administration, Management and Operations.Bachelor's $44,311 $15,884
Statistics.Bachelor's $43,878 $22,350
Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Subject Areas.Bachelor's $43,159 $22,195
Economics.Bachelor's $39,699 $16,750
Apparel and Textiles.Bachelor's $39,397 $17,750
Business/Commerce, General.Bachelor's $39,320 —
Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Levels and Methods.Bachelor's $39,158 $18,110
Mathematics.Bachelor's $38,664 $24,868
Geological and Earth Sciences/Geosciences.Bachelor's $38,246 —
Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied Communication.Bachelor's $37,544 $14,442
Hospitality Administration/Management.Bachelor's $36,876 $17,404
Physics.Bachelor's $36,649 $20,765
Social Sciences, General.Bachelor's $36,112 $20,000
Film/Video and Photographic Arts.Bachelor's $35,623 $20,538
Radio, Television, and Digital Communication.Bachelor's $32,270 $17,750
Chemistry.Bachelor's $32,261 $21,406
Political Science and Government.Bachelor's $31,872 $17,537
Criminal Justice and Corrections.Bachelor's $31,412 $18,520
Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology.Bachelor's $31,392 $24,750
Parks, Recreation, and Leisure Facilities Management.Bachelor's $30,886 —
International Relations and National Security Studies.Bachelor's $30,421 $16,750
Dietetics and Clinical Nutrition Services.Bachelor's $29,443 $21,625
Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology.Bachelor's $29,178 $17,625
Natural Resources Conservation and Research.Bachelor's $29,068 $17,318
Geography and Cartography.Bachelor's $29,018 $26,707
Liberal Arts and Sciences, General Studies and Humanities.Bachelor's $28,381 $18,750
Romance Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics.Bachelor's $28,152 $20,557
English Language and Literature, General.Bachelor's $27,906 $18,592
Sports, Kinesiology, and Physical Education/Fitness.Bachelor's $27,899 $16,169
Social Work.Bachelor's $27,684 $14,500
Sociology.Bachelor's $27,540 $18,783
History.Bachelor's $27,120 $17,500
Classics and Classical Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics.Bachelor's $27,038 $20,250
Psychology, General.Bachelor's $26,859 $17,392
Music.Bachelor's $26,580 $23,000
Fine and Studio Arts.Bachelor's $26,508 $18,750
Religion/Religious Studies.Bachelor's $25,868 —
Human Development, Family Studies, and Related Services.Bachelor's $25,541 $19,160
Anthropology.Bachelor's $24,506 $19,250
East Asian Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics.Bachelor's $23,928 $16,694
Biology, General.Bachelor's $22,171 $20,528
Area Studies.Bachelor's $21,337 —
Physiology, Pathology and Related Sciences.Bachelor's $20,423 $18,613
Drama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft.Bachelor's $20,070 $19,500
Communication Disorders Sciences and Services.Bachelor's $18,659 $14,767

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
$16,100
≈ 26% 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.

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 (106 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