Education Atlas

College Scorecard · cost, debt & earnings

State University of New York at Plattsburgh

Plattsburgh, NY · Public · Bachelor-granting · 3,769 undergrads · 78% admitted

Do students finish?
59% complete

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

What does it cost?
$28,244/yr net

Average annual price after grants & scholarships. ~$112,976 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.

$56,403 median, 10 yrs after entry
25th pct $35,998 median $56,403 75th pct $76,683

74% 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.

26 Bachelor's programs · $20,808 to $68,198 (1 yr out)

MajorPay · 1yr outMedian debt
Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing.Bachelor's $68,198 $21,375
Computer and Information Sciences, General.Bachelor's $48,130 $18,250
Management Information Systems and Services.Bachelor's $46,803 $22,973
Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services, Other.Bachelor's $42,910
Accounting and Related Services.Bachelor's $40,412 $20,625
Finance and Financial Management Services.Bachelor's $40,303 $26,500
Business Administration, Management and Operations.Bachelor's $38,993 $19,500
Hospitality Administration/Management.Bachelor's $37,957 $20,000
Economics.Bachelor's $37,250 $24,596
Marketing.Bachelor's $33,522 $19,500
Criminal Justice and Corrections.Bachelor's $32,221 $21,381
Natural Resources Conservation and Research.Bachelor's $32,212 $15,747
Political Science and Government.Bachelor's $31,337 $23,716
Biology, General.Bachelor's $31,091 $18,751
Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied Communication.Bachelor's $30,517 $24,390
Communication and Media Studies.Bachelor's $30,387 $23,250
Radio, Television, and Digital Communication.Bachelor's $30,341 $23,375
Psychology, General.Bachelor's $30,208 $18,750
Social Work.Bachelor's $29,932 $21,515
Human Development, Family Studies, and Related Services.Bachelor's $29,215 $22,750
Fine and Studio Arts.Bachelor's $27,810 $19,777
Liberal Arts and Sciences, General Studies and Humanities.Bachelor's $27,354 $22,486
Journalism.Bachelor's $26,260 $21,750
Sports, Kinesiology, and Physical Education/Fitness.Bachelor's $23,653
Communication Disorders Sciences and Services.Bachelor's $22,520 $20,850
History.Bachelor's $20,808 $23,121

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 (30 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