College Scorecard · cost, debt & earnings

Oberlin College

Oberlin, OH · Private nonprofit · Bachelor-granting · 2,887 undergrads · 34% admitted

Do students finish?

81% complete

Most students who start here finish.

What does it cost?

$87,404/yr net

Average annual price after grants & scholarships. ~$349,616 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.

$58,343 median, 10 yrs after entry

25th pct $32,470 median $58,343 75th pct $85,039

67% 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 · $16,622 to $70,028 (1 yr out)

MajorPay · 1yr outMedian debt

Computer and Information Sciences, General.Bachelor's $70,028 $26,000

Economics.Bachelor's $57,721 $25,000

Rhetoric and Composition/Writing Studies.Bachelor's $30,967 $26,487

Neurobiology and Neurosciences.Bachelor's $30,627 —

History.Bachelor's $28,902 $25,250

Biology, General.Bachelor's $28,688 $23,250

Psychology, General.Bachelor's $28,538 $23,750

Ethnic, Cultural Minority, Gender, and Group Studies.Bachelor's $28,410 —

Natural Resources Conservation and Research.Bachelor's $21,275 $23,250

Music.Bachelor's $20,910 $25,500

Area Studies.Bachelor's $19,436 $24,951

Fine and Studio Arts.Bachelor's $16,622 $20,500

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

≈ 33% 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