Education Atlas

College Scorecard · cost, debt & earnings

Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Worcester, MA · Private nonprofit · Bachelor-granting · 5,447 undergrads · 60% admitted

Do students finish?
90% complete

Most students who start here finish.

What does it cost?
$78,679/yr net

Average annual price after grants & scholarships. ~$314,716 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.

$103,470 median, 10 yrs after entry
25th pct $77,738 median $103,470 75th pct $129,699

92% 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.

16 Bachelor's programs · $40,930 to $86,601 (1 yr out)

MajorPay · 1yr outMedian debt
Computer Science.Bachelor's $86,601 $27,000
Mechatronics, Robotics, and Automation Engineering.Bachelor's $77,253 $27,000
Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering.Bachelor's $74,310 $26,887
Industrial Engineering.Bachelor's $72,720 $26,254
Aerospace, Aeronautical, and Astronautical/Space Engineering.Bachelor's $72,303 $27,000
Mathematics and Statistics, Other.Bachelor's $71,732
Mechanical Engineering.Bachelor's $68,074 $27,000
Chemical Engineering.Bachelor's $67,835 $27,000
Civil Engineering.Bachelor's $67,056 $27,000
Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services, Other.Bachelor's $63,868 $26,500
Environmental/Environmental Health Engineering.Bachelor's $59,196
Biomedical/Medical Engineering.Bachelor's $57,498 $27,000
Mathematics.Bachelor's $57,292 $19,500
Biology, General.Bachelor's $43,799 $26,950
Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology.Bachelor's $43,408 $27,000
Computer Software and Media Applications.Bachelor's $40,930 $24,656

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
$26,978
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 (24 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