Education Atlas

College Scorecard · cost, debt & earnings

Ohio University-Main Campus

Athens, OH · Public · Bachelor-granting · 19,633 undergrads · 85% admitted

Do students finish?
65% complete

Most students who start here finish.

What does it cost?
$30,586/yr net

Average annual price after grants & scholarships. ~$122,344 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.

$52,581 median, 10 yrs after entry
25th pct $32,485 median $52,581 75th pct $79,745

71% 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.

48 Bachelor's programs · $18,112 to $74,736 (1 yr out)

MajorPay · 1yr outMedian debt
Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering.Bachelor's $74,736 $23,125
Mechanical Engineering.Bachelor's $68,216 $26,216
Computer Science.Bachelor's $64,115 $21,490
Industrial Engineering.Bachelor's $63,889 $27,000
Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing.Bachelor's $62,995 $13,672
Industrial Production Technologies/Technicians.Bachelor's $61,571 $25,577
Chemical Engineering.Bachelor's $60,469 $22,732
Management Information Systems and Services.Bachelor's $60,084 $25,309
Civil Engineering.Bachelor's $59,630 $26,875
Accounting and Related Services.Bachelor's $54,637 $25,500
Finance and Financial Management Services.Bachelor's $51,288 $24,250
Computer Systems Networking and Telecommunications.Bachelor's $49,122 $19,500
Air Transportation.Bachelor's $48,402 $22,067
Marketing.Bachelor's $46,271 $23,416
Business/Managerial Economics.Bachelor's $45,936 $21,000
Business Administration, Management and Operations.Bachelor's $42,385 $21,563
Apparel and Textiles.Bachelor's $42,157 $23,750
Public Health.Bachelor's $40,049 $23,875
Computer and Information Sciences, General.Bachelor's $39,852 $20,750
Chemistry.Bachelor's $38,908 $24,500
Geological and Earth Sciences/Geosciences.Bachelor's $38,792 $18,500
Health and Medical Administrative Services.Bachelor's $37,744 $24,750
Criminology.Bachelor's $37,213 $15,792
Special Education and Teaching.Bachelor's $36,697 $26,950
Mental and Social Health Services and Allied Professions.Bachelor's $36,032 $26,000
Journalism.Bachelor's $35,870 $24,000
Communication and Media Studies.Bachelor's $35,024 $21,500
Allied Health Diagnostic, Intervention, and Treatment Professions.Bachelor's $34,755 $27,000
Sports, Kinesiology, and Physical Education/Fitness.Bachelor's $34,539 $23,000
Economics.Bachelor's $34,370 $19,750
Music.Bachelor's $34,078 $26,750
Political Science and Government.Bachelor's $32,640 $22,500
Human Development, Family Studies, and Related Services.Bachelor's $32,035 $26,147
Liberal Arts and Sciences, General Studies and Humanities.Bachelor's $31,656 $24,049
Design and Applied Arts.Bachelor's $31,458 $27,000
Foods, Nutrition, and Related Services.Bachelor's $31,018 $24,780
Sociology.Bachelor's $30,530 $24,500
Social Work.Bachelor's $30,489 $20,000
Geography and Cartography.Bachelor's $30,302 $26,000
Radio, Television, and Digital Communication.Bachelor's $30,250 $23,654
Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Levels and Methods.Bachelor's $29,151 $21,500
Physiology, Pathology and Related Sciences.Bachelor's $28,600 $26,500
Psychology, General.Bachelor's $26,491 $23,258
Communication Disorders Sciences and Services.Bachelor's $24,794 $22,875
History.Bachelor's $24,760 $23,250
Zoology/Animal Biology.Bachelor's $24,443 $23,356
Fine and Studio Arts.Bachelor's $20,703 $25,250
Drama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft.Bachelor's $18,112 $21,875

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
$15,332
≈ 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 (75 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