Education Atlas

College Scorecard · cost, debt & earnings

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

Edinburg, TX · Public · Bachelor-granting · 28,666 undergrads · 94% admitted

Do students finish?
51% complete

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

What does it cost?
$16,830/yr net

Average annual price after grants & scholarships. ~$67,320 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.

$49,620 median, 10 yrs after entry
25th pct $29,401 median $49,620 75th pct $66,597

70% 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.

35 Bachelor's programs · $18,083 to $65,185 (1 yr out)

MajorPay · 1yr outMedian debt
Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering.Bachelor's $65,185 $17,892
Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing.Bachelor's $60,833 $11,208
Mechanical Engineering.Bachelor's $57,430 $15,125
Computer Engineering.Bachelor's $55,970 $15,902
Computer Science.Bachelor's $52,532
Computer and Information Sciences, General.Bachelor's $48,807 $15,000
Clinical/Medical Laboratory Science/Research and Allied Professions.Bachelor's $48,280 $14,469
Civil Engineering.Bachelor's $48,240 $11,000
Music.Bachelor's $47,631 $15,175
Mathematics.Bachelor's $44,430 $11,000
Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies, Other.Bachelor's $38,937 $13,849
Finance and Financial Management Services.Bachelor's $38,808 $15,000
Management Information Systems and Services.Bachelor's $33,930
Accounting and Related Services.Bachelor's $31,846 $12,449
Chemistry.Bachelor's $31,631 $10,837
Business Administration, Management and Operations.Bachelor's $30,605 $14,500
Criminal Justice and Corrections.Bachelor's $30,182 $11,000
Social Work.Bachelor's $30,048 $15,126
Economics.Bachelor's $29,592
Sociology.Bachelor's $28,315
Natural Resources Conservation and Research.Bachelor's $27,477
Non-Professional Legal Studies.Bachelor's $26,395
Marketing.Bachelor's $25,201 $14,500
Psychology, General.Bachelor's $24,487 $11,604
Political Science and Government.Bachelor's $24,242 $9,563
Sports, Kinesiology, and Physical Education/Fitness.Bachelor's $23,978 $14,297
English Language and Literature, General.Bachelor's $23,797 $15,750
Rehabilitation and Therapeutic Professions.Bachelor's $23,575 $14,500
Biology, General.Bachelor's $23,287 $12,051
Romance Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics.Bachelor's $21,821 $11,945
Communication and Media Studies.Bachelor's $21,663 $11,540
History.Bachelor's $21,656 $17,500
Communication Disorders Sciences and Services.Bachelor's $19,538 $13,670
Drama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft.Bachelor's $19,335 $11,002
Fine and Studio Arts.Bachelor's $18,083 $15,500

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
$9,593
19% 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 (56 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