Bachelor's · earnings grade

Is a Rhetoric and Composition & Writing Studies degree worth it?

Graduates earn a median $31,585 two years after finishing, more than 12% of bachelor's majors. Measured across 506 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 $31,585 2 years after finishing · per graduate
Typical range $22,872–$33,993 middle half of US programmes
Over no degree — vs $39,520 high-school median
Graduates a year 5,997 506 programmes

Where a Rhetoric and Composition & Writing Studies degree pays best US programmes ranked on their own graduates' median earnings two years out.

#University1 yr out2 yrs out3 yrs outGraduates/yr
1 University of Houston-Downtown cost & debt at this university → not published $49,683 not published 13
2 Wabash College cost & debt at this university → not published $49,058 not published 11
3 The University of Texas at Arlington cost & debt at this university → $36,912 $43,319 $46,872 —
4 Carnegie Mellon University cost & debt at this university → $39,593 $42,682 $63,259 15
5 Metropolitan State University of Denver $37,230 $42,276 $46,973 46
6 Bucknell University cost & debt at this university → not published $41,565 not published 12
7 Missouri State University-Springfield $31,643 $41,193 $37,971 13
8 Michigan State University cost & debt at this university → $36,915 $40,945 $48,256 25
9 Brandeis University cost & debt at this university → not published $40,368 not published 9
10 University of Southern California cost & debt at this university → $23,653 $39,909 $41,354 41
11 George Mason University cost & debt at this university → $39,051 $39,729 $48,157 26
12 Clemson University cost & debt at this university → $38,156 $39,489 $50,923 53

What this figure does and does not tell you

Two medians are worth separating. $31,585 is what the typical graduate earns — each programme counted in proportion to how many students it graduates. $28,309 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 Rhetoric and Composition & Writing Studies sits below the middle by $4,912.

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.

Rhetoric and Composition & Writing Studies at other levels

Master's — $35,060 (F)

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

Biology — $28,443 English — $28,598 Health & Medical Preparatory Programs — $28,598 Family and Consumer Sciences/Human Sciences, General — $28,682 Psychology — $29,141 Bible & Biblical Studies — $29,277

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Rhetoric and Composition & Writing Studies: the questions people ask

How much do Rhetoric and Composition & Writing Studies graduates earn?
The median bachelor's graduate earns $31,585 two years after finishing (weighting each programme by how many students it graduates), across 153 US programmes that publish the figure. One year out it is $27,013.
Is a Rhetoric and Composition & Writing Studies 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 Rhetoric and Composition & Writing Studies?
Half of US programmes report medians between $22,872 and $33,993. Where you study moves this figure more than most applicants expect.
How many people graduate in Rhetoric and Composition & Writing Studies each year?
About 5,997 students complete a bachelor's in this field each year across 506 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 Rhetoric and Composition/Writing Studies (CIP 2313). 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.