Bachelor's · earnings grade

Is a Geography and Cartography degree worth it?

Graduates earn a median $35,420 two years after finishing, more than 42% of bachelor's majors. Measured across 302 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 $35,420 2 years after finishing
Typical range $31,133–$38,829 middle half of US programmes
Over no degree — vs $39,520 high-school median
Graduates a year 3,429 302 programmes

Where a Geography and Cartography 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 North Carolina at Charlotte cost & debt at this university → $35,230 $46,869 $54,449 31
2 Dartmouth College cost & debt at this university → $40,623 $46,478 $60,277 —
3 University of Nevada-Reno cost & debt at this university → not published $46,087 not published 11
4 University of California-Berkeley cost & debt at this university → not published $46,087 $63,751 —
5 Binghamton University $50,425 $45,696 $53,585 22
6 George Washington University cost & debt at this university → not published $44,971 not published 26
7 Northern Arizona University cost & debt at this university → not published $44,384 not published 4
8 Northern Illinois University cost & debt at this university → $39,698 $44,189 not published 14
9 Kennesaw State University cost & debt at this university → $37,238 $42,682 $46,454 44
10 Eastern Washington University cost & debt at this university → not published $42,682 not published —
11 Miami University-Oxford $39,769 $42,682 $47,584 19
12 Towson University cost & debt at this university → not published $42,682 $46,279 22

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 $37,568, so Geography and Cartography sits below the middle by $2,148.

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.

Geography and Cartography at other levels

Master's — $54,713 (C)

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

Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Levels and Methods — $35,605 Hospitality Administration/Management — $36,497 Special Education and Teaching — $37,568 Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Administration — $37,705 Family and Consumer Sciences/Human Sciences Business Services — $38,108 Chemistry — $38,289

Funding the degree Lenders that fund US and international students — compare the rate before you sign.

MPOWER Financing
No-cosigner, no-collateral loans for international and DACA students in the US a...
· no co-signer
See MPOWER Financing →
Prodigy Finance
Cosigner-free loans for international postgraduate students at top global univer...
· no co-signer
See Prodigy Finance →
Sallie Mae
One of the largest US private student loan lenders, with international options v...
See Sallie Mae →

We may earn a commission if you take a loan through a provider here. It never changes the earnings figures on this page — those come from the US Department of Education.

Geography and Cartography: the questions people ask

How much do Geography and Cartography graduates earn?
The median bachelor's graduate earns $35,420 two years after finishing, across 143 US programmes that publish the figure. One year out it is $34,640.
Is a Geography and Cartography 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.
What is the salary range for Geography and Cartography?
Half of US programmes report medians between $31,133 and $38,829. Where you study moves this figure more than most applicants expect.
How many people graduate in Geography and Cartography each year?
About 3,429 students complete a bachelor's in this field each year across 302 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.
All degree grades Highest paying majors Most popular majors University costs & payback

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.