Education Atlas

College Scorecard · cost, debt & earnings

Oakland University

Rochester Hills, MI · Public · Bachelor-granting · 12,351 undergrads · 88% admitted

Do students finish?
58% complete

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

What does it cost?
$25,182/yr net

Average annual price after grants & scholarships. ~$100,728 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.

$58,612 median, 10 yrs after entry
25th pct $36,515 median $58,612 75th pct $84,827

73% 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.

39 Bachelor's programs · $21,061 to $76,319 (1 yr out)

MajorPay · 1yr outMedian debt
Computer Engineering.Bachelor's $76,319 $25,783
Mechanical Engineering.Bachelor's $73,808 $21,500
Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering.Bachelor's $72,313 $25,971
Industrial Engineering.Bachelor's $71,468 $28,500
Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing.Bachelor's $61,925 $20,641
Computer and Information Sciences, General.Bachelor's $61,652 $26,000
Public Health.Bachelor's $61,508 $31,000
Business Administration, Management and Operations.Bachelor's $60,294 $25,647
Management Information Systems and Services.Bachelor's $59,306 $26,000
Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods.Bachelor's $58,008
Allied Health Diagnostic, Intervention, and Treatment Professions.Bachelor's $55,191 $26,000
Accounting and Related Services.Bachelor's $50,708 $22,292
Finance and Financial Management Services.Bachelor's $48,900 $22,423
Human Resources Management and Services.Bachelor's $47,599 $24,125
Marketing.Bachelor's $46,506 $24,125
Business/Commerce, General.Bachelor's $45,823 $27,000
Mathematics.Bachelor's $42,795
Criminal Justice and Corrections.Bachelor's $37,796 $23,625
History.Bachelor's $37,582 $22,250
Non-Professional Legal Studies.Bachelor's $37,248
Liberal Arts and Sciences, General Studies and Humanities.Bachelor's $34,722 $23,780
Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Levels and Methods.Bachelor's $34,586 $27,542
Communication and Media Studies.Bachelor's $34,054 $22,000
Sociology.Bachelor's $32,236 $20,333
Design and Applied Arts.Bachelor's $32,025 $26,000
Social Work.Bachelor's $31,528 $25,000
English Language and Literature, General.Bachelor's $30,652 $25,418
Natural Resources Conservation and Research.Bachelor's $29,274 $19,187
Psychology, General.Bachelor's $28,572 $22,500
Fine and Studio Arts.Bachelor's $27,860
Health Professions and Related Clinical Sciences, Other.Bachelor's $27,476 $23,432
Journalism.Bachelor's $26,874 $25,212
Biology, General.Bachelor's $25,099 $24,200
Homeland Security.Bachelor's $25,085 $15,648
Rhetoric and Composition/Writing Studies.Bachelor's $23,915 $22,894
Political Science and Government.Bachelor's $23,244 $21,500
International Relations and National Security Studies.Bachelor's $22,681
Drama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft.Bachelor's $22,672 $26,678
Film/Video and Photographic Arts.Bachelor's $21,061 $27,000

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
$16,787
29% 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 (57 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