Bachelor's · earnings grade

Is a Mental and Social Health Services degree worth it?

Graduates earn a median $31,382 two years after finishing, more than 30% of bachelor's majors. Measured across 138 US programmes by the Department of Education — real graduate pay, not survey answers.

D

The verdict on the money

Financially it is a slower start than most majors at this level — worth planning your borrowing around.

Median earnings $31,382 2 years after finishing · per graduate
Typical range $29,685–$35,060 middle half of US programmes
Over no degree — vs $39,520 high-school median
Graduates a year 2,850 138 programmes

Where a Mental and Social Health Services degree pays best US programmes ranked on their own graduates' median earnings two years out.

#University1 yr out2 yrs out3 yrs outGraduates/yr
1 Metropolitan State University cost & debt at this university → $47,114 $48,097 $48,546 27
2 Saint Cloud State University cost & debt at this university → $43,232 $46,087 $47,283 3
3 University of Pennsylvania cost & debt at this university → $39,242 $43,798 $61,098 63
4 University of Alaska Anchorage cost & debt at this university → $37,604 $39,741 not published 6
5 Minnesota State University-Mankato cost & debt at this university → $37,009 $39,153 $43,058 57
6 Western New Mexico University cost & debt at this university → not published $37,748 not published 1
7 Central Michigan University cost & debt at this university → $37,986 $37,208 $33,281 —
8 Alvernia University cost & debt at this university → $36,365 $36,717 $35,884 22
9 Worcester State University $35,724 $36,668 $39,986 65
10 Northern Illinois University cost & debt at this university → $36,776 $36,608 $43,096 26
11 University of Cincinnati-Main Campus cost & debt at this university → $29,377 $35,416 not published 16
12 University of Kansas cost & debt at this university → not published $35,274 not published 13

What this figure does and does not tell you

Two medians are worth separating. $31,382 is what the typical graduate earns — each programme counted in proportion to how many students it graduates. $31,854 is what the typical programme reports, counting a class of twenty the same as a class of two thousand. The weighted figure is lower here, which means the larger programmes in this field pay less than the small 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 bachelor's major in this dataset reports $36,497, so Mental and Social Health Services sits below the middle by $5,115.

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.

Mental and Social Health Services at other levels

Master's — $41,193 (F)

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

International & Globalization Studies — $32,004 Allied Health — $32,162 Social Work — $32,249 Biological and Physical Sciences — $32,391 Journalism — $32,429 Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology — $32,515

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Mental and Social Health Services: the questions people ask

How much do Mental and Social Health Services graduates earn?
The median bachelor's graduate earns $31,382 two years after finishing (weighting each programme by how many students it graduates), across 49 US programmes that publish the figure. One year out it is $33,657.
Is a Mental and Social Health Services degree worth it?
Financially it is a slower start than most majors at this level — worth planning your borrowing around.
What is the salary range for Mental and Social Health Services?
Half of US programmes report medians between $29,685 and $35,060. Where you study moves this figure more than most applicants expect.
How many people graduate in Mental and Social Health Services each year?
About 2,850 students complete a bachelor's in this field each year across 138 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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Classified by the Department of Education as Mental and Social Health Services and Allied Professions (CIP 5115). 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.