Master's · earnings grade

Is a Biomedical Engineering degree worth it?

Graduates earn a median $75,706 two years after finishing, more than 76% of master's majors. Measured across 181 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 $75,706 2 years after finishing · per graduate
Typical range $63,005–$77,715 middle half of US programmes
Over no degree +$36,186 vs $39,520 high-school median
Graduates a year 3,671 181 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 California-Berkeley cost & debt at this university → not published $92,632 not published 88
2 Columbia University in the City of New York not published $89,305 not published 126
3 Santa Clara University cost & debt at this university → not published $88,639 not published 5
4 Tufts University cost & debt at this university → $79,010 $84,653 $111,235 33
5 San Jose State University cost & debt at this university → not published $84,653 not published 17
6 University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus not published $79,727 $79,626 30
7 California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo cost & debt at this university → not published $78,971 not published 21
8 University of Southern California cost & debt at this university → $76,738 $78,343 $85,344 54
9 Johns Hopkins University cost & debt at this university → $76,324 $77,966 $91,827 267
10 University of Connecticut-Hartford Campus $78,037 $77,715 $89,989
11 University of Connecticut-Stamford $78,037 $77,715 $89,989
12 University of Connecticut-Avery Point $78,037 $77,715 $89,989

What this figure does and does not tell you

Two medians are worth separating. $75,706 is what the typical graduate earns — each programme counted in proportion to how many students it graduates. $74,845 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 master's major in this dataset reports $54,713, so Biomedical Engineering sits above the middle by $20,993.

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

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Biomedical Engineering: the questions people ask

How much do Biomedical Engineering graduates earn?
The median master's graduate earns $75,706 two years after finishing (weighting each programme by how many students it graduates), across 36 US programmes that publish the figure. One year out it is $73,107.
Is a Biomedical Engineering degree worth it?
Yes — graduates earn more than most majors at this level. The median graduate earns $36,186 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 $63,005 and $77,715. Where you study moves this figure more than most applicants expect.
How many people graduate in Biomedical Engineering each year?
About 3,671 students complete a master's in this field each year across 181 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.

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.