Graduates earn a median $31,851 two years after finishing, more than 22% of master's majors. Measured across 165 US programmes by the Department of Education — real graduate pay, not survey answers.
On earnings alone this is among the lowest-paying majors at this level. That does not make it a bad subject, but it does make the debt you take on for it matter more.
| # | University | 1 yr out | 2 yrs out | 3 yrs out | Graduates/yr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Quinnipiac University | $96,471 | $98,506 | $102,012 | — |
| 2 | George Washington University cost & debt at this university → | not published | $50,606 | not published | 18 |
| 3 | Washington State University cost & debt at this university → | $51,289 | $49,644 | $49,521 | 25 |
| 4 | The College of Saint Scholastica | not published | $46,478 | not published | 6 |
| 5 | University of Miami cost & debt at this university → | not published | $44,835 | $39,830 | 14 |
| 6 | Florida State University cost & debt at this university → | $38,004 | $44,021 | $49,243 | 38 |
| 7 | University of Florida cost & debt at this university → | $42,110 | $43,426 | $49,002 | 125 |
| 8 | Eastern Michigan University cost & debt at this university → | $35,138 | $42,682 | $47,888 | 13 |
| 9 | Sacred Heart University cost & debt at this university → | $36,668 | $42,682 | not published | 14 |
| 10 | Carroll University | $33,383 | $42,309 | $48,866 | 10 |
| 11 | Kent State University at Kent | $36,214 | $41,565 | not published | 9 |
| 12 | North Carolina State University at Raleigh | $29,857 | $33,993 | $52,439 | 106 |
Two medians are worth separating. $31,851 is what the typical graduate earns — each programme counted in proportion to how many students it graduates. $43,054 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 master's major in this dataset reports $52,837, so Physiology sits below the middle by $20,986.
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.
Tell us what you need and we will come back with the lenders that actually fund students from your country — including options with no US co-signer. No obligation, and we never charge you.
Classified by the Department of Education as Physiology, Pathology and Related Sciences (CIP 2609). 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.