Education Atlas

College Scorecard · cost, debt & earnings

Gonzaga University

Spokane, WA · Private nonprofit · Bachelor-granting · 5,198 undergrads · 82% admitted

Do students finish?
86% complete

Most students who start here finish.

What does it cost?
$73,178/yr net

Average annual price after grants & scholarships. ~$292,712 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.

$78,892 median, 10 yrs after entry
25th pct $53,874 median $78,892 75th pct $111,646

86% 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.

22 Bachelor's programs · $26,151 to $71,511 (1 yr out)

MajorPay · 1yr outMedian debt
Computer Science.Bachelor's $71,511 $27,000
Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing.Bachelor's $70,609 $27,000
Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering.Bachelor's $64,158
Civil Engineering.Bachelor's $63,318 $25,000
Mechanical Engineering.Bachelor's $59,977 $23,000
Accounting and Related Services.Bachelor's $59,455 $24,774
Business/Commerce, General.Bachelor's $50,090 $22,500
Special Education and Teaching.Bachelor's $49,990 $27,000
Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied Communication.Bachelor's $40,575 $26,000
History.Bachelor's $39,800 $26,000
Economics.Bachelor's $36,406 $22,125
Criminology.Bachelor's $34,393 $21,488
Political Science and Government.Bachelor's $34,249 $21,494
Journalism.Bachelor's $33,359 $27,000
Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology.Bachelor's $30,368
Natural Resources Conservation and Research.Bachelor's $29,415 $24,184
Communication and Media Studies.Bachelor's $29,397 $21,875
Education, Other.Bachelor's $29,243
Physiology, Pathology and Related Sciences.Bachelor's $28,013 $24,625
Psychology, General.Bachelor's $26,852 $27,000
Sociology.Bachelor's $26,256 $25,125
Biology, General.Bachelor's $26,151 $26,000

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
$20,500
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 (33 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