Master's · earnings grade

Is a Genetics degree worth it?

Graduates earn a median $72,671 two years after finishing, more than 72% of master's majors. Measured across 76 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 $72,671 2 years after finishing
Typical range $69,338–$73,321 middle half of US programmes
Over no degree +$33,151 vs $39,520 high-school median
Graduates a year 474 76 programmes

Where a Genetics 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 Wisconsin-Madison cost & debt at this university → not published $73,446 not published 20
2 Arcadia University not published $73,321 $82,507
3 Emory University cost & debt at this university → not published $72,671 not published 10
4 Indiana University-Indianapolis not published $69,338 not published 8
5 University of South Carolina-Columbia not published $64,493 not published 9

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 $52,837, so Genetics sits above the middle by $19,834.

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.

Genetics at other levels

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Genetics: the questions people ask

How much do Genetics graduates earn?
The median master's graduate earns $72,671 two years after finishing (weighting each programme by how many students it graduates), across 5 US programmes that publish the figure. One year out it is $78,684.
Is a Genetics degree worth it?
Yes — graduates earn more than most majors at this level. The median graduate earns $33,151 a year more than a US worker whose highest qualification is a high-school diploma.
What is the salary range for Genetics?
Half of US programmes report medians between $69,338 and $73,321. Where you study moves this figure more than most applicants expect.
How many people graduate in Genetics each year?
About 474 students complete a master's in this field each year across 76 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.

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.