Bachelor's · earnings grade

Is a Biomedical Engineering degree worth it?

Graduates earn a median $60,771 two years after finishing, more than 81% of bachelor's majors. Measured across 204 US programmes by the Department of Education — real graduate pay, not survey answers.

B

The verdict on the money

Yes — graduates earn more than most majors at this level.

Median earnings $60,771 2 years after finishing · per graduate
Typical range $48,823–$66,611 middle half of US programmes
Over no degree +$21,251 vs $39,520 high-school median
Graduates a year 8,820 204 programmes

Where a Biomedical Engineering degree pays best US programmes ranked on their own graduates' median earnings two years out.

#University1 yr out2 yrs out3 yrs outGraduates/yr
1 University of Pennsylvania cost & debt at this university → $72,773 $82,440 $90,071 44
2 University of Michigan-Dearborn cost & debt at this university → $56,541 $77,401 $77,316 37
3 Northwestern University $60,519 $76,460 not published 45
4 Duke University cost & debt at this university → $67,573 $75,114 $82,947 102
5 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign cost & debt at this university → $74,716 $74,576 $77,352 86
6 California State University-Long Beach cost & debt at this university → $65,701 $73,949 not published 66
7 Lawrence Technological University cost & debt at this university → not published $73,635 not published 11
8 California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo cost & debt at this university → $72,746 $73,635 $77,513 71
9 Johns Hopkins University cost & debt at this university → $35,386 $72,509 $84,359 108
10 Stevens Institute of Technology cost & debt at this university → $63,694 $71,015 $78,065 64
11 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor cost & debt at this university → not published $71,015 $74,943 138
12 The Catholic University of America cost & debt at this university → $53,024 $71,015 not published 21

What this figure does and does not tell you

Two medians are worth separating. $60,771 is what the typical graduate earns — each programme counted in proportion to how many students it graduates. $58,866 is what the typical programme reports, counting a class of twenty the same as a class of two thousand. The weighted figure is higher here, which means the larger programmes in this field are the better-paying ones.

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 $42,682, so Biomedical Engineering sits above the middle by $18,089.

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.

Biomedical Engineering at other levels

Master's — $74,845 (B)

Scholarships for Biomedical Engineering students

Whatever the subject pays, the money you do not borrow is the money you keep.

RMIT University PhD and Masters Scholarships, Biomedical Engin... UCD science scholarships 2016 University of Oulu International Master’s Scholarship Scheme i... PhD Research Fellowship in Biomedical Engineering at Universit... Scholarships for international Students at Marche Polytechnic... For Uk and EU Students CDT Fully Funded Applied Photonics Engi...
See all Biomedical Engineering scholarships →

Study Biomedical Engineering Programmes listed on ScholarshipsAds.

Biomedical Engineering (Biomechanics and Mecha... — Imperial College London Biomedical Engineering — Imperial College London Biological and Biomedical Engineering - Bioman... — McGill University Biological and Biomedical Engineering — McGill University Electrical and Biomedical Engineering — McMaster University Integrated Biomedical Engineering and Health S... — McMaster University

Majors that pay more at this level Closest first — useful if you are still choosing.

Quality Control — $59,286 Engineering Physics — $60,171 Civil Engineering — $60,523 Nuclear Engineering — $60,899 Engineering Science — $61,365 Engineering — $61,516

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Biomedical Engineering: the questions people ask

How much do Biomedical Engineering graduates earn?
The median bachelor's graduate earns $60,771 two years after finishing (weighting each programme by how many students it graduates), across 106 US programmes that publish the figure. One year out it is $55,043.
Is a Biomedical Engineering degree worth it?
Yes — graduates earn more than most majors at this level. The median graduate earns $21,251 a year more than a US worker whose highest qualification is a high-school diploma.
What is the salary range for Biomedical Engineering?
Half of US programmes report medians between $48,823 and $66,611. Where you study moves this figure more than most applicants expect.
How many people graduate in Biomedical Engineering each year?
About 8,820 students complete a bachelor's in this field each year across 204 US programmes.
Does this include student debt?
No — and deliberately. The Department of Education publishes earnings by field of study but not debt, so any "debt by major" figure you see elsewhere is an estimate. Debt is published per institution, which is why our university pages carry it and this page does not.
All degree grades Highest paying majors Most popular majors University costs & payback

Classified by the Department of Education as Biomedical/Medical Engineering (CIP 1405). 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.