Education Atlas

College Scorecard · cost, debt & earnings

University of Puget Sound

Tacoma, WA · Private nonprofit · Bachelor-granting · 1,594 undergrads · 72% admitted

Do students finish?
68% complete

Most students who start here finish.

What does it cost?
$78,378/yr net

Average annual price after grants & scholarships. ~$313,512 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.

$69,594 median, 10 yrs after entry
25th pct $43,124 median $69,594 75th pct $102,646

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.

25 Bachelor's programs · $16,420 to $57,730 (1 yr out)

MajorPay · 1yr outMedian debt
Computer Science.Bachelor's $57,730 $25,000
Economics.Bachelor's $48,980 $25,500
Business Administration, Management and Operations.Bachelor's $46,383 $26,000
Mathematics.Bachelor's $38,324 $22,000
Communication and Media Studies.Bachelor's $35,004 $27,000
Romance Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics.Bachelor's $34,720 $27,000
Area Studies.Bachelor's $34,596 $27,000
Health Professions Education, Ethics, and Humanities.Bachelor's $34,264
Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies, Other.Bachelor's $32,610
Sports, Kinesiology, and Physical Education/Fitness.Bachelor's $32,428 $21,646
International Relations and National Security Studies.Bachelor's $29,768 $25,798
Music.Bachelor's $29,692 $27,000
Cell/Cellular Biology and Anatomical Sciences.Bachelor's $28,818
Psychology, General.Bachelor's $28,705 $27,000
Political Science and Government.Bachelor's $28,059 $22,801
Drama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft.Bachelor's $26,752
Fine and Studio Arts.Bachelor's $26,720 $26,022
Biology, General.Bachelor's $25,376 $24,309
History.Bachelor's $24,461 $20,000
Sociology and Anthropology.Bachelor's $24,431 $25,000
Natural Resources Conservation and Research.Bachelor's $24,013 $24,623
Biological and Physical Sciences.Bachelor's $21,709 $26,629
English Language and Literature, General.Bachelor's $19,816 $27,000
Neurobiology and Neurosciences.Bachelor's $17,394
Religion/Religious Studies.Bachelor's $16,420

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
$19,250
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 (29 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