Graduates earn a median $28,443 two years after finishing, more than 6% of bachelor's majors. Measured across 1,383 US programmes by the Department of Education — real graduate pay, not survey answers.
On earnings alone this is among the lowest-paying majors at this level. That does not make it a bad subject, but it does make the debt you take on for it matter more.
| # | University | 1 yr out | 2 yrs out | 3 yrs out | Graduates/yr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Saint Mary's University of Minnesota cost & debt at this university → | not published | $47,118 | not published | 12 |
| 2 | Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute cost & debt at this university → | not published | $46,478 | $43,460 | 28 |
| 3 | Neumann University | $43,070 | $44,170 | $52,990 | 3 |
| 4 | University of Detroit Mercy cost & debt at this university → | $21,838 | $42,682 | $61,089 | 141 |
| 5 | DeSales University | $39,040 | $42,235 | not published | 55 |
| 6 | The University of Texas Permian Basin cost & debt at this university → | not published | $41,565 | not published | 37 |
| 7 | Union College cost & debt at this university → | $36,171 | $41,565 | $54,902 | 30 |
| 8 | Wabash College cost & debt at this university → | $30,882 | $41,565 | $43,702 | 17 |
| 9 | Saint Mary's College of California cost & debt at this university → | not published | $41,565 | $37,256 | 28 |
| 10 | Salem State University | $37,411 | $41,308 | $50,821 | 67 |
| 11 | California State University-East Bay | $37,605 | $41,261 | $51,793 | 134 |
| 12 | Indian River State College cost & debt at this university → | $26,383 | $41,193 | $36,838 | 46 |
It is the median of what real graduates of this exact major earned, taken from tax records two years after they completed. It is not a starting salary, not an average of job adverts, and not a projection. The median bachelor's major in this dataset reports $37,705, so Biology sits below the middle by $9,262.
Two years is early in a career. Fields with long training pipelines — medicine, law, research — look weaker at this point than they will at ten, while trades and applied technical fields peak sooner. Read a low figure in a long-pipeline subject as "slow start", not "bad degree".
There is no debt figure here on purpose. The Department of Education publishes earnings by field of study but not borrowing, so nobody can honestly tell you the debt of a specific major. Debt is published per institution — that is where our university cost pages carry it.
Whatever the subject pays, the money you do not borrow is the money you keep.
See all Biology scholarships →We may earn a commission if you take a loan through a provider here. It never changes the earnings figures on this page — those come from the US Department of Education.
Classified by the Department of Education as Biology, General (CIP 2601). Source: US Department of Education College Scorecard, field-of-study earnings (median earnings of graduates who received federal financial aid, measured 1–3 years after completion). Figures are per major and credential level, pooled across US programmes. Information only, not financial advice.