Education Atlas

College Scorecard · cost, debt & earnings

Kean University

Union, NJ · Public · Bachelor-granting · 11,433 undergrads · 76% admitted

Do students finish?
47% complete

A large share of students do not finish; the cost is the same whether or not you graduate.

What does it cost?
$26,949/yr net

Average annual price after grants & scholarships. ~$107,796 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.

$57,237 median, 10 yrs after entry
25th pct $36,530 median $57,237 75th pct $78,461

76% 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.

30 Bachelor's programs · $19,787 to $83,745 (1 yr out)

MajorPay · 1yr outMedian debt
Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing.Bachelor's $83,745 $18,009
Computer and Information Sciences, General.Bachelor's $61,311 $23,651
Economics.Bachelor's $51,377
Special Education and Teaching.Bachelor's $49,445 $25,479
Accounting and Related Services.Bachelor's $49,189 $24,000
Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Levels and Methods.Bachelor's $47,418 $25,713
Computer Systems Networking and Telecommunications.Bachelor's $43,698 $25,240
Geological and Earth Sciences/Geosciences.Bachelor's $41,636 $26,139
Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Subject Areas.Bachelor's $41,307 $24,500
Romance Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics.Bachelor's $40,492 $29,451
Finance and Financial Management Services.Bachelor's $39,161 $21,774
History.Bachelor's $39,093 $22,158
Mathematics.Bachelor's $38,706 $26,088
Business Administration, Management and Operations.Bachelor's $38,680 $24,990
Marketing.Bachelor's $37,662 $22,500
International Business.Bachelor's $36,995 $25,772
Design and Applied Arts.Bachelor's $36,145 $24,004
English Language and Literature, General.Bachelor's $35,690 $26,984
Biology, General.Bachelor's $34,115 $24,650
Psychology, Other.Bachelor's $34,091
Criminal Justice and Corrections.Bachelor's $33,573 $24,213
Chemistry.Bachelor's $32,365
Parks, Recreation, and Leisure Facilities Management.Bachelor's $32,052 $27,000
Public Administration.Bachelor's $30,940 $26,307
Psychology, General.Bachelor's $30,347 $21,500
Communication and Media Studies.Bachelor's $29,817 $21,469
Political Science and Government.Bachelor's $28,574 $18,250
Fine and Studio Arts.Bachelor's $27,137 $26,022
Sociology.Bachelor's $27,123 $24,000
Drama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft.Bachelor's $19,787 $25,836

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
$17,199
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. 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 (44 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