College Scorecard · cost, debt & earnings

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Blacksburg, VA · Public · Bachelor-granting · 30,923 undergrads · 55% admitted

Do students finish?

86% complete

Most students who start here finish.

What does it cost?

$36,951/yr net

Average annual price after grants & scholarships. ~$147,804 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.

$81,698 median, 10 yrs after entry

25th pct $53,415 median $81,698 75th pct $113,356

87% 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.

54 Bachelor's programs · $19,929 to $82,448 (1 yr out)

MajorPay · 1yr outMedian debt

Computer and Information Sciences, General.Bachelor's $82,448 $20,500

Applied Mathematics.Bachelor's $76,413 $20,000

Computer Engineering.Bachelor's $75,104 $25,929

Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering.Bachelor's $73,162 $23,562

Chemical Engineering.Bachelor's $72,805 $24,875

Industrial Engineering.Bachelor's $70,925 $22,625

Construction Management.Bachelor's $69,047 $27,000

Mining and Mineral Engineering.Bachelor's $69,045 $20,907

Construction Engineering.Bachelor's $68,755 $26,349

Mechanical Engineering.Bachelor's $68,574 $22,500

Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods.Bachelor's $67,610 $21,500

Aerospace, Aeronautical, and Astronautical/Space Engineering.Bachelor's $66,226 $25,833

Engineering Mechanics.Bachelor's $64,144 $27,500

Civil Engineering.Bachelor's $63,758 $25,000

Engineering-Related Fields.Bachelor's $62,198 $23,750

Materials Engineering.Bachelor's $60,906 $27,000

Accounting and Related Services.Bachelor's $60,629 $18,500

Agricultural Engineering.Bachelor's $60,131 $26,125

Finance and Financial Management Services.Bachelor's $59,846 $21,500

Architecture.Bachelor's $53,246 $29,000

Mathematics.Bachelor's $52,028 $22,375

Marketing.Bachelor's $49,648 $22,500

Business Administration, Management and Operations.Bachelor's $49,620 $22,017

Design and Applied Arts.Bachelor's $49,418 $23,900

Food Science and Technology.Bachelor's $48,390 $26,875

Hospitality Administration/Management.Bachelor's $47,314 $24,500

Family and Consumer Sciences/Human Sciences Business Services.Bachelor's $44,837 $22,450

Economics.Bachelor's $43,249 $22,125

Agricultural Business and Management.Bachelor's $43,242 $22,999

Statistics.Bachelor's $40,729 $15,500

Natural Resources Conservation and Research.Bachelor's $40,493 $26,816

International Relations and National Security Studies.Bachelor's $39,039 $21,250

Political Science and Government.Bachelor's $38,529 $23,500

Forestry.Bachelor's $38,479 $20,663

Chemistry.Bachelor's $38,346 $22,875

Communication and Media Studies.Bachelor's $36,639 $20,500

Sociology.Bachelor's $35,639 $22,562

History.Bachelor's $34,622 $20,499

Linguistic, Comparative, and Related Language Studies and Services.Bachelor's $33,455 $22,500

Geography and Cartography.Bachelor's $33,269 $19,500

Plant Sciences.Bachelor's $33,134 $18,955

Fine and Studio Arts.Bachelor's $32,060 $26,000

Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology.Bachelor's $31,684 $24,000

Microbiological Sciences and Immunology.Bachelor's $30,897 $24,817

Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology.Bachelor's $29,714 $23,250

Human Development, Family Studies, and Related Services.Bachelor's $28,797 $20,500

Animal Sciences.Bachelor's $27,809 $22,250

Psychology, General.Bachelor's $26,171 $21,500

Geological and Earth Sciences/Geosciences.Bachelor's $25,556 —

English Language and Literature, General.Bachelor's $25,442 $21,625

Foods, Nutrition, and Related Services.Bachelor's $23,946 $24,017

Biology, General.Bachelor's $22,263 $20,164

Wildlife and Wildlands Science and Management.Bachelor's $21,497 $21,390

Neurobiology and Neurosciences.Bachelor's $19,929 $22,300

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

$19,000

≈ 23% 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 (73 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