Graduates earn a median $32,429 two years after finishing, more than 28% of bachelor's majors. Measured across 409 US programmes by the Department of Education — real graduate pay, not survey answers.
Financially it is a slower start than most majors at this level — worth planning your borrowing around.
| # | University | 1 yr out | 2 yrs out | 3 yrs out | Graduates/yr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | George Washington University cost & debt at this university → | $42,777 | $47,260 | $55,491 | 48 |
| 2 | University of Connecticut-Hartford Campus | $31,444 | $44,276 | $50,213 | — |
| 3 | University of Connecticut-Stamford | $31,444 | $44,276 | $50,213 | — |
| 4 | University of Connecticut-Avery Point | $31,444 | $44,276 | $50,213 | — |
| 5 | University of Connecticut-Waterbury Campus | $31,444 | $44,276 | $50,213 | — |
| 6 | University of Connecticut | $31,444 | $44,276 | $50,213 | 25 |
| 7 | University of Richmond cost & debt at this university → | not published | $43,426 | not published | 18 |
| 8 | Northwestern University | $44,144 | $43,100 | $53,833 | — |
| 9 | Washington and Lee University cost & debt at this university → | not published | $42,682 | $54,059 | 6 |
| 10 | University of Southern California cost & debt at this university → | $44,188 | $42,682 | $53,510 | 97 |
| 11 | Point Loma Nazarene University | not published | $41,937 | not published | 3 |
| 12 | Northeastern University | $38,872 | $41,565 | $49,358 | 42 |
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 Journalism sits below the middle by $5,139.
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.
Whatever the subject pays, the money you do not borrow is the money you keep.
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.
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.