College Scorecard · cost, debt & earnings

Paul Smiths College of Arts and Science

Paul Smiths, NY · Private nonprofit · Bachelor-granting · 579 undergrads · 77% admitted

Do students finish?

51% complete

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

What does it cost?

$51,506/yr net

Average annual price after grants & scholarships. ~$206,024 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.

$46,145 median, 10 yrs after entry

25th pct $31,978 median $46,145 75th pct $60,593

66% 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.

7 Bachelor's programs · $26,369 to $37,225 (1 yr out)

MajorPay · 1yr outMedian debt

Forestry.Bachelor's $37,225 —

Culinary Arts and Related Services.Bachelor's $31,439 $27,000

Environmental/Natural Resources Management and Policy.Bachelor's $30,327 $27,000

Parks, Recreation, and Leisure Studies.Bachelor's $28,309 $20,500

Multi-/Interdisciplinary Studies, General.Bachelor's $27,595 —

Natural Resources Conservation and Research.Bachelor's $26,663 $23,250

Wildlife and Wildlands Science and Management.Bachelor's $26,369 $24,218

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

$17,062

≈ 37% 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 (9 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