Education Atlas

College Scorecard · cost, debt & earnings

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Madison, WI · Public · Bachelor-granting · 36,902 undergrads · 45% admitted

Do students finish?
90% complete

Most students who start here finish.

What does it cost?
$28,679/yr net

Average annual price after grants & scholarships. ~$114,716 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.

$73,792 median, 10 yrs after entry
25th pct $52,171 median $73,792 75th pct $108,161

86% 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.

66 Bachelor's programs · $21,448 to $78,839 (1 yr out)

MajorPay · 1yr outMedian debt
Computer Engineering.Bachelor's $78,839 —
Industrial Engineering.Bachelor's $74,061 $23,481
Computer and Information Sciences, General.Bachelor's $72,878 $20,500
Chemical Engineering.Bachelor's $72,510 $21,638
Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering.Bachelor's $70,596 $22,500
Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods.Bachelor's $70,478 $22,250
Mechanical Engineering.Bachelor's $70,199 $19,450
Real Estate.Bachelor's $69,730 $20,138
Civil Engineering.Bachelor's $66,167 $21,500
Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing.Bachelor's $65,921 $20,659
Insurance.Bachelor's $65,571 $20,500
Materials Engineering.Bachelor's $64,892 $20,195
Biomedical/Medical Engineering.Bachelor's $63,620 $20,492
Agricultural Engineering.Bachelor's $61,703 $19,970
Engineering Mechanics.Bachelor's $61,649 $23,500
Accounting and Related Services.Bachelor's $61,605 $20,277
Finance and Financial Management Services.Bachelor's $61,474 $20,181
Marketing.Bachelor's $53,817 $20,000
International Business.Bachelor's $53,394 —
Business Administration, Management and Operations.Bachelor's $53,294 $20,000
General Sales, Merchandising and Related Marketing Operations.Bachelor's $52,840 $18,737
Mathematics.Bachelor's $51,817 $20,080
Food Science and Technology.Bachelor's $50,564 —
Economics.Bachelor's $48,053 $20,500
Agricultural Business and Management.Bachelor's $47,469 $12,500
Physics.Bachelor's $45,916 $20,500
Design and Applied Arts.Bachelor's $43,684 $17,875
Journalism.Bachelor's $42,011 $21,500
Special Education and Teaching.Bachelor's $41,945 $20,500
Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Levels and Methods.Bachelor's $40,648 $21,500
Geological and Earth Sciences/Geosciences.Bachelor's $39,352 $24,250
Chemistry.Bachelor's $38,140 $22,250
Sociology.Bachelor's $37,772 $17,212
Non-Professional Legal Studies.Bachelor's $37,462 $20,000
Agricultural Public Services.Bachelor's $36,985 $15,000
Microbiological Sciences and Immunology.Bachelor's $36,807 $21,500
Communication and Media Studies.Bachelor's $36,006 $20,500
Political Science and Government.Bachelor's $35,789 $20,500
Philosophy.Bachelor's $35,717 $21,500
Animal Sciences.Bachelor's $35,454 $25,000
Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology.Bachelor's $34,941 $20,000
Genetics.Bachelor's $33,912 $19,500
Slavic, Baltic and Albanian Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics.Bachelor's $33,908 —
Rehabilitation and Therapeutic Professions.Bachelor's $32,788 $21,500
Area Studies.Bachelor's $32,123 $20,196
Romance Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics.Bachelor's $31,856 $20,000
Geography and Cartography.Bachelor's $31,655 $18,689
Anthropology.Bachelor's $31,599 $16,166
Psychology, General.Bachelor's $31,572 $20,500
Biology, General.Bachelor's $30,913 $20,500
Fine and Studio Arts.Bachelor's $30,793 $16,750
Botany/Plant Biology.Bachelor's $30,520 —
Ethnic, Cultural Minority, Gender, and Group Studies.Bachelor's $29,857 $19,254
Human Development, Family Studies, and Related Services.Bachelor's $29,244 $20,500
English Language and Literature, General.Bachelor's $29,174 $19,989
Neurobiology and Neurosciences.Bachelor's $29,137 $21,202
International/Globalization Studies.Bachelor's $28,989 $17,732
History.Bachelor's $28,843 $19,500
Nutrition Sciences.Bachelor's $28,232 $20,500
Sports, Kinesiology, and Physical Education/Fitness.Bachelor's $27,879 $24,000
Zoology/Animal Biology.Bachelor's $27,864 $23,250
Natural Resources Conservation and Research.Bachelor's $27,422 $18,875
Social Work.Bachelor's $26,239 $20,500
Ecology, Evolution, Systematics, and Population Biology.Bachelor's $23,512 $19,500
Communication Disorders Sciences and Services.Bachelor's $21,520 $25,247
Wildlife and Wildlands Science and Management.Bachelor's $21,448 —

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
$18,058
≈ 25% 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 (94 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