College Scorecard · cost, debt & earnings

George Washington University

Washington, DC · Private nonprofit · Bachelor-granting · 11,182 undergrads · 47% admitted

Do students finish?

84% complete

Most students who start here finish.

What does it cost?

$83,856/yr net

Average annual price after grants & scholarships. ~$335,424 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.

$90,873 median, 10 yrs after entry

25th pct $62,102 median $90,873 75th pct $130,294

88% 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.

33 Bachelor's programs · $28,669 to $75,984 (1 yr out)

MajorPay · 1yr outMedian debt

Computer Science.Bachelor's $75,984 $19,500

Computer/Information Technology Administration and Management.Bachelor's $74,168 $16,404

Biomedical/Medical Engineering.Bachelor's $69,299 $23,000

Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing.Bachelor's $68,769 $18,716

Systems Engineering.Bachelor's $68,609 —

Finance and Financial Management Services.Bachelor's $67,909 $18,148

Information Science/Studies.Bachelor's $67,132 —

Mechanical Engineering.Bachelor's $66,737 $21,375

International Business.Bachelor's $60,116 $21,875

Economics.Bachelor's $57,078 $20,500

Mathematics.Bachelor's $56,802 —

Computer and Information Sciences, General.Bachelor's $56,768 $15,000

Marketing.Bachelor's $54,148 $22,975

Hospitality Administration/Management.Bachelor's $52,591 $19,250

Business/Commerce, General.Bachelor's $52,414 $20,500

Human Resources Management and Services.Bachelor's $51,900 $20,939

Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied Communication.Bachelor's $47,727 $23,250

International Relations and National Security Studies.Bachelor's $45,627 $20,958

Communication and Media Studies.Bachelor's $45,521 $25,000

Political Science and Government.Bachelor's $44,076 $21,723

Journalism.Bachelor's $42,777 $25,000

Design and Applied Arts.Bachelor's $42,306 —

Romance Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics.Bachelor's $42,187 —

History.Bachelor's $42,168 $23,250

Criminal Justice and Corrections.Bachelor's $40,192 $19,500

Psychology, General.Bachelor's $37,208 —

Physiology, Pathology and Related Sciences.Bachelor's $36,630 $19,500

Anthropology.Bachelor's $36,176 $26,000

Natural Resources Conservation and Research.Bachelor's $35,320 $19,500

English Language and Literature, General.Bachelor's $33,575 $23,250

Philosophy.Bachelor's $33,265 —

Sociology.Bachelor's $30,683 —

Biology, General.Bachelor's $28,669 $23,871

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

$19,500

≈ 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.

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 (92 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