Bachelor's · earnings grade

Is a Nuclear Engineering degree worth it?

Graduates earn a median $63,005 two years after finishing, more than 84% of bachelor's majors. Measured across 23 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 $63,005 2 years after finishing · per graduate
Typical range $49,644–$66,287 middle half of US programmes
Over no degree +$23,485 vs $39,520 high-school median
Graduates a year 427 23 programmes

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

#University1 yr out2 yrs out3 yrs outGraduates/yr
1 The University of Tennessee-Knoxville cost & debt at this university → $51,780 $75,204 $83,022 46
2 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign cost & debt at this university → $65,618 $69,535 $83,170 28
3 Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus cost & debt at this university → $73,557 $69,338 $76,013 14
4 Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus cost & debt at this university → $62,046 $66,287 $74,131 33
5 Texas A&M University-College Station cost & debt at this university → $70,571 $63,005 not published 62
6 Missouri University of Science and Technology cost & debt at this university → $52,882 $62,674 $71,910 25
7 University of Florida cost & debt at this university → not published $59,124 $78,797 15
8 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute cost & debt at this university → $70,021 $57,318 $76,878 18
9 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor cost & debt at this university → $41,147 $53,358 $65,523 17
10 University of Wisconsin-Madison cost & debt at this university → not published $49,644 $72,709 10
11 Oregon State University-Cascades Campus $47,169 $46,087 $63,523 —
12 Oregon State University cost & debt at this university → $47,169 $46,087 $63,523 24

What this figure does and does not tell you

Two medians are worth separating. $63,005 is what the typical graduate earns — each programme counted in proportion to how many students it graduates. $60,899 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 bachelor's major in this dataset reports $36,497, so Nuclear Engineering sits above the middle by $26,508.

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.

Scholarships for Nuclear Engineering students

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

Austria The IAEA Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship Programme 2... University of Science and Technology of China Atomic Energy Ma... University of New South Wales (UNSW) Nuclear Engineering Under...
See all Nuclear Engineering scholarships →

Study Nuclear Engineering Programmes listed on ScholarshipsAds.

Energy and Nuclear Engineering — Politecnico di Torino Master's in Nuclear Engineering — University of Pittsburgh Bachelor's in Nuclear Engineering — University at Buffalo Master's in Nuclear Engineering — University at Buffalo Bachelor's in Nuclear Engineering — University of Michigan Master's in Nuclear Engineering — University of Michigan

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

Engineering Science — $61,365 Engineering — $61,516 Electrical & Electronic Engineering Technology — $61,702 Human Computer Interaction — $62,012 Computer Programming — $62,260 Construction Engineering Technology & Technician — $63,855

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Nuclear Engineering: the questions people ask

How much do Nuclear Engineering graduates earn?
The median bachelor's graduate earns $63,005 two years after finishing (weighting each programme by how many students it graduates), across 12 US programmes that publish the figure. One year out it is $62,969.
Is a Nuclear Engineering degree worth it?
Yes — graduates earn more than most majors at this level. The median graduate earns $23,485 a year more than a US worker whose highest qualification is a high-school diploma.
What is the salary range for Nuclear Engineering?
Half of US programmes report medians between $49,644 and $66,287. Where you study moves this figure more than most applicants expect.
How many people graduate in Nuclear Engineering each year?
About 427 students complete a bachelor's in this field each year across 23 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.