College Scorecard · cost, debt & earnings

Lafayette College

Easton, PA · Private nonprofit · Bachelor-granting · 2,757 undergrads · 31% admitted

Do students finish?

88% complete

Most students who start here finish.

What does it cost?

$83,133/yr net

Average annual price after grants & scholarships. ~$332,532 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.

$91,410 median, 10 yrs after entry

25th pct $63,534 median $91,410 75th pct $133,083

90% 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.

12 Bachelor's programs · $25,006 to $77,247 (1 yr out)

MajorPay · 1yr outMedian debt

Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering.Bachelor's $77,247 —

Mechanical Engineering.Bachelor's $67,784 $19,500

Engineering, General.Bachelor's $67,714 —

Civil Engineering.Bachelor's $67,033 $16,000

Chemical Engineering.Bachelor's $64,532 $17,000

Economics.Bachelor's $63,927 $19,500

International Relations and National Security Studies.Bachelor's $47,229 $16,620

Political Science and Government.Bachelor's $46,408 $13,640

Film/Video and Photographic Arts.Bachelor's $38,673 —

English Language and Literature, General.Bachelor's $37,680 $16,500

Biology, General.Bachelor's $35,718 $17,000

Social Sciences, Other.Bachelor's $25,006 —

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

$14,000

≈ 15% 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 (12 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