Education Atlas

College Scorecard · cost, debt & earnings

Southern New Hampshire University

Manchester, NH · Private nonprofit · Bachelor-granting · 163,164 undergrads · 100% admitted

Weigh this carefully before borrowing

Only 43% of students here finish, and the loans are owed whether or not you graduate (students who withdrew here carry a median of $6,332 in federal debt). Compare the cost and completion against a community college or in-state public university before you sign.

Do students finish?
43% complete

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

What does it cost?
$40,918/yr net

Average annual price after grants & scholarships. ~$163,672 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.

$50,318 median, 10 yrs after entry
25th pct $29,434 median $50,318 75th pct $75,732

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.

33 Bachelor's programs · $26,207 to $72,753 (1 yr out)

MajorPay · 1yr outMedian debt
Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing.Bachelor's $72,753 $16,539
Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services, Other.Bachelor's $71,552
Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods.Bachelor's $67,048 $25,079
Health Services/Allied Health/Health Sciences, General.Bachelor's $57,436 $13,042
Finance and Financial Management Services.Bachelor's $55,580 $22,565
Computer and Information Sciences, General.Bachelor's $54,280 $28,689
Business Administration, Management and Operations.Bachelor's $52,197 $22,773
Economics.Bachelor's $51,193 $23,861
International Business.Bachelor's $48,883 $26,166
Liberal Arts and Sciences, General Studies and Humanities.Bachelor's $48,678 $13,023
Mathematics.Bachelor's $48,557 $18,833
Marketing.Bachelor's $47,292 $25,000
Accounting and Related Services.Bachelor's $46,867 $25,669
Health and Medical Administrative Services.Bachelor's $45,661 $25,000
Hospitality Administration/Management.Bachelor's $43,730 $23,250
Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied Communication.Bachelor's $40,928 $19,790
Criminal Justice and Corrections.Bachelor's $40,917 $22,000
Natural Resources Conservation and Research.Bachelor's $39,593 $20,649
Design and Applied Arts.Bachelor's $37,976 $22,965
Culinary Arts and Related Services.Bachelor's $37,855 $23,500
Specialized Sales, Merchandising and Marketing Operations.Bachelor's $37,771 $25,000
Human Services, General.Bachelor's $34,785 $24,084
Public Health.Bachelor's $34,495 $18,750
English Language and Literature, General.Bachelor's $33,843 $20,127
History.Bachelor's $33,806 $23,808
Social Sciences, General.Bachelor's $33,311 $20,917
Psychology, General.Bachelor's $33,208 $22,000
Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Levels and Methods.Bachelor's $30,647 $25,660
Political Science and Government.Bachelor's $30,198 $21,208
Computer Software and Media Applications.Bachelor's $30,070 $21,771
Sports, Kinesiology, and Physical Education/Fitness.Bachelor's $29,329 $22,501
Education, General.Bachelor's $28,348 $25,000
Rhetoric and Composition/Writing Studies.Bachelor's $26,207 $23,583

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
$9,169
18% 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 (67 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