Education Atlas

College Scorecard · cost, debt & earnings

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

Edwardsville, IL · Public · Bachelor-granting · 8,750 undergrads · 98% admitted

Do students finish?
57% complete

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

What does it cost?
$28,919/yr net

Average annual price after grants & scholarships. ~$115,676 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.

$56,346 median, 10 yrs after entry
25th pct $37,805 median $56,346 75th pct $82,428

76% 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.

34 Bachelor's programs · $21,831 to $69,868 (1 yr out)

MajorPay · 1yr outMedian debt
Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering.Bachelor's $69,868 $24,000
Computer Engineering.Bachelor's $69,093 $20,770
Computer Science.Bachelor's $64,415 $21,551
Construction Engineering Technology/Technician.Bachelor's $62,721
Mechanical Engineering.Bachelor's $60,153 $21,774
Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing.Bachelor's $58,394 $18,249
Civil Engineering.Bachelor's $57,616 $20,264
Computer and Information Sciences, General.Bachelor's $51,510 $21,637
Accounting and Related Services.Bachelor's $47,324 $19,000
Business/Managerial Economics.Bachelor's $44,677 $19,275
Geography and Cartography.Bachelor's $42,843 $18,750
Business Administration, Management and Operations.Bachelor's $39,899 $20,625
Mathematics.Bachelor's $39,283
Chemistry.Bachelor's $38,243 $22,000
Special Education and Teaching.Bachelor's $37,104 $16,000
Linguistic, Comparative, and Related Language Studies and Services.Bachelor's $36,196
Multi-/Interdisciplinary Studies, General.Bachelor's $36,041 $25,991
Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Levels and Methods.Bachelor's $33,977 $25,000
Criminal Justice and Corrections.Bachelor's $33,961 $22,375
Communication and Media Studies.Bachelor's $33,924 $20,500
History.Bachelor's $32,201 $18,992
Sociology.Bachelor's $31,291 $25,000
Political Science and Government.Bachelor's $31,139 $24,250
Social Work.Bachelor's $29,707 $23,500
Psychology, General.Bachelor's $29,321 $23,375
Public Health.Bachelor's $28,821 $26,000
Biology, General.Bachelor's $28,532 $21,500
Communication Disorders Sciences and Services.Bachelor's $28,271 $19,500
Anthropology.Bachelor's $27,937 $23,752
Fine and Studio Arts.Bachelor's $27,691 $26,125
Drama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft.Bachelor's $24,021 $25,000
English Language and Literature, General.Bachelor's $23,890 $24,250
Sports, Kinesiology, and Physical Education/Fitness.Bachelor's $23,792 $22,355
Music.Bachelor's $21,831 $22,500

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
$15,500
28% 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 (45 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