Bachelor's · earnings grade

Is a Mathematics degree worth it?

Graduates earn a median $43,687 two years after finishing, more than 68% of bachelor's majors. Measured across 1,228 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 $43,687 2 years after finishing
Typical range $38,289–$49,436 middle half of US programmes
Over no degree +$4,167 vs $39,520 high-school median
Graduates a year 19,260 1,228 programmes

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

#University1 yr out2 yrs out3 yrs outGraduates/yr
1 Swarthmore College cost & debt at this university → $59,964 $125,015 not published 49
2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology cost & debt at this university → $82,796 $117,572 $155,540 139
3 Dartmouth College cost & debt at this university → $76,013 $103,078 $71,100 64
4 Rice University cost & debt at this university → not published $97,071 not published 47
5 Cornell University cost & debt at this university → $77,827 $91,211 $102,995 103
6 Johns Hopkins University cost & debt at this university → $70,019 $86,867 $101,777 102
7 Duke University cost & debt at this university → not published $81,333 $84,729 83
8 Vanderbilt University cost & debt at this university → $76,609 $80,309 $95,754 157
9 Washington and Lee University cost & debt at this university → not published $76,460 $69,951 15
10 Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology cost & debt at this university → not published $76,460 $86,525 10
11 Northwestern University $68,815 $75,518 $76,013 72
12 University of Chicago cost & debt at this university → $81,753 $72,022 $81,130 181

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 Mathematics sits above the middle by $6,119.

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.

Mathematics at other levels

Master's — $52,959 (C)

Scholarships for Mathematics students

Whatever the subject pays, the money you do not borrow is the money you keep.

Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University Foreign/ Split and Local PhD... Offer at Swansea University for Postgraduate Scholarships in m... 3 PhD Positions in Computational Systems Biology in Berlin, 20... University of California Math Undergraduate Merit Scholarships... Science Undergraduate Scholarships at University of Strathclyd... MSc or PhD Position at Ozyegin University Graduate Program in...
See all Mathematics scholarships →

Study Mathematics Programmes listed on ScholarshipsAds.

Mathematics — KTH Royal Institute of Tec... Engineering Mathematics and Computational Scie... — Chalmers University of Tec... Sciences (Mathematics Specialisation) — Lund University Mathematics — University of Oxford Mathematics and Philosophy — University of Oxford Mathematics and Statistics — University of Oxford

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

Economics — $46,087 Accounting and Related Services — $47,260 Finance and Financial Management Services — $49,864 Computer/Information Technology Administration and Management — $51,035 Statistics — $53,897 Management Information Systems and Services — $56,099

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

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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.

Mathematics: the questions people ask

How much do Mathematics graduates earn?
The median bachelor's graduate earns $43,687 two years after finishing, across 364 US programmes that publish the figure. One year out it is $43,164.
Is a Mathematics degree worth it?
Yes — graduates earn more than most majors at this level. The median graduate earns $4,167 a year more than a US worker whose highest qualification is a high-school diploma.
What is the salary range for Mathematics?
Half of US programmes report medians between $38,289 and $49,436. Where you study moves this figure more than most applicants expect.
How many people graduate in Mathematics each year?
About 19,260 students complete a bachelor's in this field each year across 1,228 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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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.