Education Atlas

College Scorecard · cost, debt & earnings

Grand Valley State University

Allendale, MI · Public · Bachelor-granting · 18,854 undergrads · 83% admitted

Do students finish?
67% complete

Most students who start here finish.

What does it cost?
$28,367/yr net

Average annual price after grants & scholarships. ~$113,468 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.

$56,118 median, 10 yrs after entry
25th pct $38,569 median $56,118 75th pct $78,636

75% 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.

60 Bachelor's programs · $22,671 to $74,641 (1 yr out)

MajorPay · 1yr outMedian debt
Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering.Bachelor's $74,641 $29,091
Mechanical Engineering.Bachelor's $70,095 $26,012
Manufacturing Engineering.Bachelor's $68,319 $24,250
Computer and Information Sciences, General.Bachelor's $62,211 $24,250
Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing.Bachelor's $59,822 $25,000
Information Science/Studies.Bachelor's $58,382 $28,937
Quality Control and Safety Technologies/Technicians.Bachelor's $57,039 $28,894
Business Administration, Management and Operations.Bachelor's $51,957 $25,000
Allied Health Diagnostic, Intervention, and Treatment Professions.Bachelor's $48,926 $25,375
Finance and Financial Management Services.Bachelor's $47,558 $21,500
Business/Managerial Economics.Bachelor's $47,277 $24,281
Accounting and Related Services.Bachelor's $46,872 $21,823
Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods.Bachelor's $45,994 $25,000
International Business.Bachelor's $44,077 $24,295
Human Resources Management and Services.Bachelor's $43,898 $23,250
Marketing.Bachelor's $43,752 $22,530
Mathematics.Bachelor's $41,498 $25,250
Business/Commerce, General.Bachelor's $40,591 $21,025
Chemistry.Bachelor's $40,048 $23,239
Social Sciences, General.Bachelor's $39,437 $26,932
Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology.Bachelor's $39,331 $25,125
Statistics.Bachelor's $38,770 $27,000
Education, General.Bachelor's $38,643 $28,250
Communication, Journalism, and Related Programs, Other.Bachelor's $38,420 $24,250
Biological and Physical Sciences.Bachelor's $38,369 $27,000
Geography and Cartography.Bachelor's $37,652 $19,324
English Language and Literature, General.Bachelor's $37,452 $27,036
Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied Communication.Bachelor's $37,125 $25,000
Geological and Earth Sciences/Geosciences.Bachelor's $36,459 $27,000
Legal Support Services.Bachelor's $36,426 $21,498
Liberal Arts and Sciences, General Studies and Humanities.Bachelor's $36,374 $27,660
Rehabilitation and Therapeutic Professions.Bachelor's $36,184 $26,000
Economics.Bachelor's $36,005 $24,904
Hospitality Administration/Management.Bachelor's $35,325 $25,500
Health and Medical Administrative Services.Bachelor's $34,944 $27,250
Criminal Justice and Corrections.Bachelor's $34,822 $25,000
Public Administration.Bachelor's $34,390 $25,000
International Relations and National Security Studies.Bachelor's $33,927 $18,535
Ethnic, Cultural Minority, Gender, and Group Studies.Bachelor's $33,497 —
Romance Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics.Bachelor's $32,711 $27,000
Music.Bachelor's $32,676 $29,075
Biology, General.Bachelor's $31,914 $24,250
Social Work.Bachelor's $31,888 $25,216
Radio, Television, and Digital Communication.Bachelor's $30,921 $27,000
Communication and Media Studies.Bachelor's $30,680 $23,000
Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Subject Areas.Bachelor's $30,428 $29,000
Health Professions and Related Clinical Sciences, Other.Bachelor's $30,278 $24,945
Natural Resources Conservation and Research.Bachelor's $30,036 $22,587
Political Science and Government.Bachelor's $29,582 $23,250
Fine and Studio Arts.Bachelor's $28,844 $27,000
Health/Medical Preparatory Programs.Bachelor's $28,629 $25,017
Sociology.Bachelor's $28,186 $22,500
Psychology, General.Bachelor's $28,122 $23,000
Neurobiology and Neurosciences.Bachelor's $27,948 $24,179
Sports, Kinesiology, and Physical Education/Fitness.Bachelor's $27,617 $24,250
History.Bachelor's $26,987 $25,524
Anthropology.Bachelor's $24,144 $27,000
Film/Video and Photographic Arts.Bachelor's $23,424 $24,499
Rhetoric and Composition/Writing Studies.Bachelor's $23,340 $24,250
Philosophy.Bachelor's $22,671 $25,466

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
≈ 35% 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 (78 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