College Scorecard · cost, debt & earnings

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Troy, NY · Private nonprofit · Bachelor-granting · 5,714 undergrads · 63% admitted

Do students finish?

84% complete

Most students who start here finish.

What does it cost?

$82,404/yr net

Average annual price after grants & scholarships. ~$329,616 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.

$102,051 median, 10 yrs after entry

25th pct $71,488 median $102,051 75th pct $137,023

92% 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.

19 Bachelor's programs · $42,448 to $83,880 (1 yr out)

MajorPay · 1yr outMedian debt

Computer Science.Bachelor's $83,880 $23,233

Computer and Information Sciences, General.Bachelor's $78,367 $27,000

Computer Engineering Technologies/Technicians.Bachelor's $76,042 $23,582

Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering.Bachelor's $72,826 $23,250

Nuclear Engineering.Bachelor's $70,021 $19,500

Materials Engineering.Bachelor's $67,716 $23,250

Civil Engineering.Bachelor's $67,648 $26,250

Mathematics.Bachelor's $67,066 $23,250

Chemical Engineering.Bachelor's $66,991 $24,985

Industrial Engineering.Bachelor's $65,458 $22,500

Mechanical Engineering.Bachelor's $65,319 $24,121

Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies, Other.Bachelor's $64,983 $26,500

Aerospace, Aeronautical, and Astronautical/Space Engineering.Bachelor's $64,354 $24,861

Biomedical/Medical Engineering.Bachelor's $63,784 $26,000

Business Administration, Management and Operations.Bachelor's $56,988 $25,000

Architecture.Bachelor's $52,282 $31,000

Design and Applied Arts.Bachelor's $46,471 $25,000

Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology.Bachelor's $46,292 —

Physics.Bachelor's $42,448 $20,270

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

$21,995

≈ 22% 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 (25 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