College Scorecard · cost, debt & earnings

University of Missouri-Columbia

Columbia, MO · Public · Bachelor-granting · 23,929 undergrads · 78% admitted

Do students finish?

75% complete

Most students who start here finish.

What does it cost?

$31,713/yr net

Average annual price after grants & scholarships. ~$126,852 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.

$63,403 median, 10 yrs after entry

25th pct $42,277 median $63,403 75th pct $90,496

81% 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.

51 Bachelor's programs · $23,987 to $72,907 (1 yr out)

MajorPay · 1yr outMedian debt

Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering.Bachelor's $72,907 $22,500

Computer Engineering.Bachelor's $71,579 $19,500

Industrial Engineering.Bachelor's $70,396 $26,512

Chemical Engineering.Bachelor's $69,895 $25,804

Mechanical Engineering.Bachelor's $66,571 $21,843

Computer and Information Sciences, General.Bachelor's $62,420 $20,906

Civil Engineering.Bachelor's $60,964 $21,000

Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing.Bachelor's $60,951 $21,500

Biological/Biosystems Engineering.Bachelor's $56,251 $23,000

Allied Health Diagnostic, Intervention, and Treatment Professions.Bachelor's $55,017 $21,500

Business/Commerce, General.Bachelor's $50,323 $21,000

Agricultural Business and Management.Bachelor's $48,867 $17,499

Agricultural Mechanization.Bachelor's $48,353 $19,334

Mathematics.Bachelor's $48,004 $16,454

Economics.Bachelor's $44,765 $18,315

Family and Consumer Economics and Related Studies.Bachelor's $43,998 $27,000

Housing and Human Environments.Bachelor's $43,809 $26,000

Area Studies.Bachelor's $42,527 $21,000

Statistics.Bachelor's $42,173 $15,189

Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Subject Areas.Bachelor's $41,170 $16,250

Special Education and Teaching.Bachelor's $40,242 $19,455

Geography and Cartography.Bachelor's $40,081 $18,786

Hospitality Administration/Management.Bachelor's $38,633 $22,000

Apparel and Textiles.Bachelor's $38,512 $24,932

Liberal Arts and Sciences, General Studies and Humanities.Bachelor's $38,284 $20,500

Plant Sciences.Bachelor's $37,618 $17,924

Journalism.Bachelor's $37,418 $21,000

Communication and Media Studies.Bachelor's $35,358 $19,500

Political Science and Government.Bachelor's $35,343 $21,125

Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies, Other.Bachelor's $35,038 $25,500

Fine and Studio Arts.Bachelor's $34,933 $19,500

Health Services/Allied Health/Health Sciences, General.Bachelor's $34,419 $21,500

Parks, Recreation, and Leisure Studies.Bachelor's $34,388 $20,500

Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Levels and Methods.Bachelor's $33,520 $20,475

Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology.Bachelor's $33,394 $18,625

Sociology.Bachelor's $31,759 $22,000

Music.Bachelor's $30,766 $27,000

Psychology, General.Bachelor's $29,782 $20,421

Forestry.Bachelor's $29,725 —

Human Development, Family Studies, and Related Services.Bachelor's $29,521 $26,000

Agriculture, General.Bachelor's $28,239 —

Animal Sciences.Bachelor's $27,992 $19,500

Natural Resources Conservation and Research.Bachelor's $27,179 $19,000

Classics and Classical Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics.Bachelor's $27,002 —

English Language and Literature, General.Bachelor's $26,979 $23,250

Anthropology.Bachelor's $26,486 $15,430

History.Bachelor's $26,248 $21,000

Foods, Nutrition, and Related Services.Bachelor's $25,832 $22,500

Biology, General.Bachelor's $24,544 $21,599

Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology.Bachelor's $24,117 $25,437

Film/Video and Photographic Arts.Bachelor's $23,987 $21,500

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

$16,500

≈ 26% 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.

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 (82 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