Education Atlas

College Scorecard · cost, debt & earnings

Southern Connecticut State University

New Haven, CT · Public · Bachelor-granting · 6,295 undergrads · 91% admitted

Do students finish?
50% complete

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

What does it cost?
$29,673/yr net

Average annual price after grants & scholarships. ~$118,692 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.

$55,043 median, 10 yrs after entry
25th pct $38,356 median $55,043 75th pct $78,130

77% 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.

22 Bachelor's programs · $21,464 to $73,460 (1 yr out)

MajorPay · 1yr outMedian debt
Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing.Bachelor's $73,460 $19,000
Computer and Information Sciences, General.Bachelor's $62,930 $24,713
Special Education and Teaching.Bachelor's $45,526 $25,750
Romance Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics.Bachelor's $43,453 $16,750
Business Administration, Management and Operations.Bachelor's $40,375 $21,500
Parks, Recreation, and Leisure Facilities Management.Bachelor's $32,442 $24,931
Biology, General.Bachelor's $32,410 $20,545
Liberal Arts and Sciences, General Studies and Humanities.Bachelor's $31,951 $23,500
Public Health.Bachelor's $31,878 $21,500
Education, General.Bachelor's $31,650 $23,250
Communication and Media Studies.Bachelor's $30,995 $22,250
Sports, Kinesiology, and Physical Education/Fitness.Bachelor's $30,610 $25,000
English Language and Literature, General.Bachelor's $29,673 $23,986
Sociology.Bachelor's $29,607 $25,000
Social Work.Bachelor's $28,793 $22,500
Psychology, General.Bachelor's $28,705 $20,000
Social Sciences, General.Bachelor's $28,535
Communication Disorders Sciences and Services.Bachelor's $27,762 $19,872
Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Subject Areas.Bachelor's $25,885 $22,250
Fine and Studio Arts.Bachelor's $25,763 $20,976
Journalism.Bachelor's $24,824 $20,101
Drama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft.Bachelor's $21,464

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
$15,000
27% 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 (39 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