Master's · earnings grade

Is a International Business degree worth it?

Graduates earn a median $74,576 two years after finishing, more than 73% of master's majors. Measured across 136 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 $74,576 2 years after finishing · per graduate
Typical range $57,318–$79,450 middle half of US programmes
Over no degree +$35,056 vs $39,520 high-school median
Graduates a year 1,476 136 programmes

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

#University1 yr out2 yrs out3 yrs outGraduates/yr
1 Duke University cost & debt at this university → $151,472 $213,978 $201,782 70
2 Saint Louis University cost & debt at this university → not published $109,763 $138,445 13
3 CUNY Bernard M Baruch College not published $94,408 $97,070
4 University of South Carolina-Columbia $82,202 $90,049 $93,323 134
5 University of Southern California cost & debt at this university → not published $82,440 not published
6 Brandeis University cost & debt at this university → not published $79,450 not published 23
7 University of Scranton cost & debt at this university → $65,230 $78,343 not published 18
8 Central Michigan University cost & debt at this university → $76,008 $76,460 $81,586
9 Arizona State University Digital Immersion cost & debt at this university → $74,538 $74,576 not published 152
10 Arizona State University Campus Immersion $74,538 $74,576 not published 149
11 National University cost & debt at this university → not published $73,949 not published
12 University of Maryland Global Campus $68,389 $69,338 $77,500

What this figure does and does not tell you

Two medians are worth separating. $74,576 is what the typical graduate earns — each programme counted in proportion to how many students it graduates. $73,949 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 International Business sits above the middle by $21,739.

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.

International Business at other levels

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International Business: the questions people ask

How much do International Business graduates earn?
The median master's graduate earns $74,576 two years after finishing (weighting each programme by how many students it graduates), across 21 US programmes that publish the figure. One year out it is $69,630.
Is a International Business degree worth it?
Yes — graduates earn more than most majors at this level. The median graduate earns $35,056 a year more than a US worker whose highest qualification is a high-school diploma.
What is the salary range for International Business?
Half of US programmes report medians between $57,318 and $79,450. Where you study moves this figure more than most applicants expect.
How many people graduate in International Business each year?
About 1,476 students complete a master's in this field each year across 136 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.