Bachelor's · earnings grade

Is a Criminology degree worth it?

Graduates earn a median $33,926 two years after finishing, more than 38% of bachelor's majors. Measured across 222 US programmes by the Department of Education — real graduate pay, not survey answers.

The verdict on the money

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

Median earnings $33,926 2 years after finishing

Typical range $31,673–$37,478 middle half of US programmes

Over no degree — vs $39,520 high-school median

Graduates a year 9,264 222 programmes

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

#	University	1 yr out	2 yrs out	3 yrs out	Graduates/yr
1	Lindenwood University cost & debt at this university →	$38,594	$59,883	$60,229	—
2	Regis University cost & debt at this university →	not published	$48,823	$40,430	3
3	Saint Joseph's University - Philadelphia	$27,755	$47,260	$55,437	24
4	Saint Anselm College cost & debt at this university →	$41,099	$45,696	$55,668	49
5	University of Maryland-College Park cost & debt at this university →	$36,992	$43,585	$51,736	362
6	Briar Cliff University	not published	$42,682	not published	—
7	National Louis University cost & debt at this university →	$33,099	$42,682	not published	67
8	University of Southern Maine cost & debt at this university →	$38,634	$41,565	$42,724	14
9	The University of Texas Permian Basin cost & debt at this university →	not published	$41,193	$39,961	15
10	Lebanon Valley College cost & debt at this university →	$25,491	$41,007	$54,586	11
11	Maryville University of Saint Louis	not published	$40,485	not published	17
12	University of Saint Mary	not published	$40,281	not published	12

What this figure does and does not tell you

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 $36,497, so Criminology sits below the middle by $2,571.

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.

Criminology at other levels

Master's — $45,715 (D)

Scholarships for Criminology students

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

PhD Scholarships in Law or Criminology at University of Sheffi... Aberystwyth University’s AberDoc PhD Scholarship Scheme in UK,... Criminology Scholarships for Foreign Researchers in Germany, 2... Inspiring Futures Scholarships for International Students in U... UCT and QMUL Postdoctoral Fellowship in South Africa, 2018 UK university of Lancaster International Master and PhD Schola...

See all Criminology scholarships →

Study Criminology Programmes listed on ScholarshipsAds.

Cultural Criminology — Lund University Criminology — University of Cambridge Criminology and Sociolegal Studies — University of Toronto Criminology, Law and Society (Hons) — University of Toronto Criminology and Sociolegal Studies — University of Toronto Criminology and Sociolegal Studies — University of Toronto

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

Political Science — $33,993 Education — $33,993 Design and Applied Arts — $34,187 Microbiology — $34,207 Community Organization and Advocacy — $34,290 Criminal Justice — $34,420

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Criminology: the questions people ask

How much do Criminology graduates earn?

The median bachelor's graduate earns $33,926 two years after finishing (weighting each programme by how many students it graduates), across 109 US programmes that publish the figure. One year out it is $33,250.