Education Atlas

College Scorecard · cost, debt & earnings

Iowa State University

Ames, IA · Public · Bachelor-granting · 25,367 undergrads · 89% admitted

Do students finish?
75% complete

Most students who start here finish.

What does it cost?
$24,018/yr net

Average annual price after grants & scholarships. ~$96,072 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.

$63,386 median, 10 yrs after entry
25th pct $43,544 median $63,386 75th pct $90,188

84% 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.

66 Bachelor's programs · $22,091 to $74,299 (1 yr out)

MajorPay · 1yr outMedian debt
Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering.Bachelor's $74,299 $25,020
Computer Engineering.Bachelor's $72,598 $23,750
Construction Engineering.Bachelor's $71,580 $19,609
Computer Science.Bachelor's $71,184 $21,775
Chemical Engineering.Bachelor's $70,534 $20,136
Industrial Engineering.Bachelor's $67,086 $23,250
Aerospace, Aeronautical, and Astronautical/Space Engineering.Bachelor's $66,960 $26,017
Materials Engineering.Bachelor's $66,475 $23,000
Mechanical Engineering.Bachelor's $64,842 $22,822
Agricultural Engineering.Bachelor's $63,141 $20,750
Engineering-Related Fields.Bachelor's $61,647 $23,250
Civil Engineering.Bachelor's $61,277 $24,477
Agricultural Mechanization.Bachelor's $57,856 $19,500
Management Information Systems and Services.Bachelor's $56,910 —
Accounting and Related Services.Bachelor's $51,771 $22,276
Finance and Financial Management Services.Bachelor's $51,055 $19,625
Business Administration, Management and Operations.Bachelor's $50,665 $20,500
Architecture.Bachelor's $49,768 $30,474
Food Science and Technology.Bachelor's $49,538 $23,530
Economics.Bachelor's $49,423 $21,250
Landscape Architecture.Bachelor's $47,898 $29,400
Mathematics.Bachelor's $47,736 $21,650
Agricultural Business and Management.Bachelor's $46,032 $15,000
Chemistry.Bachelor's $45,450 $20,199
Marketing.Bachelor's $44,875 $21,500
Plant Sciences.Bachelor's $44,779 $17,039
Romance Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics.Bachelor's $42,285 $24,246
Apparel and Textiles.Bachelor's $41,681 $21,560
Rhetoric and Composition/Writing Studies.Bachelor's $41,011 —
Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Subject Areas.Bachelor's $40,888 $17,750
Geological and Earth Sciences/Geosciences.Bachelor's $40,315 $24,781
Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Levels and Methods.Bachelor's $39,738 $22,529
Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied Communication.Bachelor's $39,633 $23,125
City/Urban, Community, and Regional Planning.Bachelor's $39,426 $24,250
Forestry.Bachelor's $39,406 $18,750
Family and Consumer Sciences/Human Sciences, General.Bachelor's $38,447 $18,730
Communication and Media Studies.Bachelor's $38,232 $16,875
Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies, Other.Bachelor's $37,622 $25,490
Family and Consumer Economics and Related Studies.Bachelor's $37,468 $16,029
Design and Applied Arts.Bachelor's $37,065 $26,581
Hospitality Administration/Management.Bachelor's $37,025 $20,000
Criminal Justice and Corrections.Bachelor's $36,457 $19,500
Animal Sciences.Bachelor's $35,828 $20,500
Microbiological Sciences and Immunology.Bachelor's $35,690 $22,763
Political Science and Government.Bachelor's $35,620 $22,250
Sociology.Bachelor's $35,205 $19,876
Journalism.Bachelor's $34,913 $23,250
Liberal Arts and Sciences, General Studies and Humanities.Bachelor's $34,790 $26,768
Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology.Bachelor's $33,650 —
English Language and Literature, General.Bachelor's $33,510 $23,599
Psychology, General.Bachelor's $33,251 $21,000
History.Bachelor's $32,633 $22,000
Sports, Kinesiology, and Physical Education/Fitness.Bachelor's $32,074 $23,204
Area Studies.Bachelor's $31,963 —
International Agriculture.Bachelor's $31,292 $21,500
Human Development, Family Studies, and Related Services.Bachelor's $31,078 $20,080
Genetics.Bachelor's $30,438 $21,631
Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology.Bachelor's $29,313 $18,950
Nutrition Sciences.Bachelor's $29,014 $14,718
Natural Resources Conservation and Research.Bachelor's $28,217 $19,125
Biology, General.Bachelor's $27,611 $22,375
Ecology, Evolution, Systematics, and Population Biology.Bachelor's $26,485 $21,500
Anthropology.Bachelor's $26,131 $26,500
Linguistic, Comparative, and Related Language Studies and Services.Bachelor's $25,309 $23,250
Dietetics and Clinical Nutrition Services.Bachelor's $25,287 $18,546
Visual and Performing Arts, General.Bachelor's $22,091 —

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
$18,750
≈ 30% 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 (81 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