Master's · earnings grade

Is a Foods, Nutrition degree worth it?

Graduates earn a median $52,107 two years after finishing, more than 37% of master's majors. Measured across 93 US programmes by the Department of Education — real graduate pay, not survey answers.

C

The verdict on the money

It pays around the middle. What you earn will depend more on where you study and what you do with it than on the subject label.

Median earnings $52,107 2 years after finishing · per graduate
Typical range $43,128–$52,107 middle half of US programmes
Over no degree +$12,587 vs $39,520 high-school median
Graduates a year 1,093 93 programmes

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

#University1 yr out2 yrs out3 yrs outGraduates/yr
1 Central Michigan University cost & debt at this university → $56,710 $61,516 $59,947 17
2 Case Western Reserve University cost & debt at this university → $48,398 $54,626 $60,718 39
3 Arizona State University Digital Immersion $59,712 $54,192 $46,291 62
4 Arizona State University Campus Immersion $59,712 $54,192 $46,291 —
5 New York University cost & debt at this university → $47,954 $52,107 $61,300 57
6 Indiana University of Pennsylvania cost & debt at this university → $54,373 $50,856 not published 23
7 University of Nebraska-Lincoln cost & debt at this university → $42,352 $49,631 $54,435 20
8 Eastern Michigan University cost & debt at this university → not published $48,432 not published 2
9 University of Central Oklahoma cost & debt at this university → $45,625 $45,500 $48,898 —
10 University of Kentucky cost & debt at this university → not published $43,314 not published 1
11 North Dakota State University-Main Campus cost & debt at this university → not published $43,240 $47,578 35
12 Meredith College cost & debt at this university → not published $43,128 $45,966 43

What this figure does and does not tell you

Two medians are worth separating. $52,107 is what the typical graduate earns — each programme counted in proportion to how many students it graduates. $48,432 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 $52,837, so Foods, Nutrition sits below the middle by $730.

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.

Foods, Nutrition at other levels

Bachelor's — $31,468 (D)

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

Special Education — $48,685 Hospitality Management — $49,058 Education — $49,058 Nutrition Sciences — $49,702 Sustainability Studies — $50,856 Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education — $51,482

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Foods, Nutrition: the questions people ask

How much do Foods, Nutrition graduates earn?
The median master's graduate earns $52,107 two years after finishing (weighting each programme by how many students it graduates), across 15 US programmes that publish the figure. One year out it is $49,450.
Is a Foods, Nutrition degree worth it?
It pays around the middle. What you earn will depend more on where you study and what you do with it than on the subject label. The median graduate earns $12,587 a year more than a US worker whose highest qualification is a high-school diploma.
What is the salary range for Foods, Nutrition?
Half of US programmes report medians between $43,128 and $52,107. Where you study moves this figure more than most applicants expect.
How many people graduate in Foods, Nutrition each year?
About 1,093 students complete a master's in this field each year across 93 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.
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Classified by the Department of Education as Foods, Nutrition, and Related Services (CIP 1905). 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.