Master's · earnings grade

Is a Environmental/Natural Resources Management degree worth it?

Graduates earn a median $47,260 two years after finishing, more than 32% of master's majors. Measured across 83 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 $47,260 2 years after finishing
Typical range $38,289–$51,273 middle half of US programmes
Over no degree +$7,740 vs $39,520 high-school median
Graduates a year 1,046 83 programmes

Where a Environmental/Natural Resources Management 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 Denver cost & debt at this university → $64,755 $68,379 $66,004 166
2 University of Maryland-College Park cost & debt at this university → not published $66,077 $72,771 20
3 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University $55,619 $60,433 $73,926 94
4 Duke University cost & debt at this university → not published $58,221 $62,755 21
5 University of Hawaii at Manoa cost & debt at this university → not published $57,318 not published 13
6 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee cost & debt at this university → $48,882 $51,273 $57,814 11
7 North Dakota State University-Main Campus cost & debt at this university → $45,074 $50,856 $56,257 6
8 Montana State University cost & debt at this university → not published $48,432 not published 18
9 Oregon State University-Cascades Campus $46,635 $47,260 $52,145 1
10 Oregon State University cost & debt at this university → $46,635 $47,260 $52,145 56
11 Universidad Ana G. Mendez-Cupey Campus not published $43,426 not published 13
12 University of Idaho cost & debt at this university → $39,163 $41,565 $43,216 70

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 master's major in this dataset reports $54,713, so Environmental/Natural Resources Management sits below the middle by $7,453.

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.

Environmental/Natural Resources Management at other levels

Need a student loan for Environmental/Natural Resources Management students?

Tell us what you need and we will come back with the lenders that actually fund students from your country — including options with no US co-signer. No obligation, and we never charge you.

Free for students. We are not a lender and give no financial advice — we pass your request to partners and may be paid by them if you go ahead. One request per person per service; sending it again simply updates what we hold.

Environmental/Natural Resources Management: the questions people ask

How much do Environmental/Natural Resources Management graduates earn?
The median master's graduate earns $47,260 two years after finishing (weighting each programme by how many students it graduates), across 18 US programmes that publish the figure. One year out it is $45,074.
Is a Environmental/Natural Resources Management degree worth it?
Financially it is a slower start than most majors at this level — worth planning your borrowing around. The median graduate earns $7,740 a year more than a US worker whose highest qualification is a high-school diploma.
What is the salary range for Environmental/Natural Resources Management?
Half of US programmes report medians between $38,289 and $51,273. Where you study moves this figure more than most applicants expect.
How many people graduate in Environmental/Natural Resources Management each year?
About 1,046 students complete a master's in this field each year across 83 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 Environmental/Natural Resources Management and Policy (CIP 0302). 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.