Master's · earnings grade

Is a Broadcasting degree worth it?

Graduates earn a median $48,041 two years after finishing, more than 22% of master's majors. Measured across 122 US programmes by the Department of Education — real graduate pay, not survey answers.

D

The verdict on the money

Financially it is a slower start than most majors at this level — worth planning your borrowing around.

Median earnings $48,041 2 years after finishing · per graduate
Typical range $38,289–$48,041 middle half of US programmes
Over no degree +$8,521 vs $39,520 high-school median
Graduates a year 2,951 122 programmes

Where a Broadcasting 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 Washington-Seattle Campus $60,816 $69,338 $79,192 116
2 Savannah College of Art and Design $53,772 $56,544 $60,070 126
3 Thomas Jefferson University cost & debt at this university → not published $53,587 not published 26
4 New York University cost & debt at this university → $45,590 $48,041 $61,496 203
5 Boston University cost & debt at this university → $49,014 $45,500 not published 97
6 Elon University $41,819 $43,798 $49,374 10
7 Indiana University-Indianapolis not published $41,193 not published 3
8 Loyola University Chicago cost & debt at this university → $43,831 $38,289 not published 14
9 Western Illinois University cost & debt at this university → not published $30,771 not published 13
10 The University of Texas at Austin cost & debt at this university → $30,383 $25,967 $25,996 30

What this figure does and does not tell you

Two medians are worth separating. $48,041 is what the typical graduate earns — each programme counted in proportion to how many students it graduates. $44,649 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 Broadcasting sits below the middle by $6,672.

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.

Broadcasting at other levels

Scholarships for Broadcasting students

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

See all Broadcasting scholarships →

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Broadcasting: the questions people ask

How much do Broadcasting graduates earn?
The median master's graduate earns $48,041 two years after finishing (weighting each programme by how many students it graduates), across 10 US programmes that publish the figure. One year out it is $45,590.
Is a Broadcasting degree worth it?
Financially it is a slower start than most majors at this level — worth planning your borrowing around. The median graduate earns $8,521 a year more than a US worker whose highest qualification is a high-school diploma.
What is the salary range for Broadcasting?
Half of US programmes report medians between $38,289 and $48,041. Where you study moves this figure more than most applicants expect.
How many people graduate in Broadcasting each year?
About 2,951 students complete a master's in this field each year across 122 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 Radio, Television, and Digital Communication (CIP 0907). 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.