Bachelor's · earnings grade

Is a Computer and Information Sciences degree worth it?

Graduates earn a median $66,111 two years after finishing, more than 80% of bachelor's majors. Measured across 938 US programmes by the Department of Education — real graduate pay, not survey answers.

A

The verdict on the money

Yes, on the money — this is one of the best-paying majors at this level in the country.

Median earnings $66,111 2 years after finishing · per graduate
Typical range $50,439–$67,660 middle half of US programmes
Over no degree +$26,591 vs $39,520 high-school median
Graduates a year 44,025 938 programmes

Where a Computer and Information Sciences 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 Pennsylvania cost & debt at this university → $102,195 $138,932 $197,810 177
2 Rice University cost & debt at this university → $122,770 $129,481 $145,256 164
3 Yale University cost & debt at this university → $133,998 $122,038 $168,803 164
4 California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo cost & debt at this university → $88,197 $120,462 $143,849 —
5 University of California-Los Angeles cost & debt at this university → $117,100 $110,878 $147,842 —
6 Johns Hopkins University cost & debt at this university → $105,950 $108,649 $122,951 171
7 Swarthmore College cost & debt at this university → $97,897 $94,408 $113,966 73
8 Carnegie Mellon University cost & debt at this university → not published $94,408 not published 111
9 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor cost & debt at this university → $100,643 $94,281 $117,745 1,215
10 University of Virginia-Main Campus cost & debt at this university → $83,639 $92,077 $108,272 297
11 Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus cost & debt at this university → $89,428 $91,152 $110,089 1,070
12 University of Notre Dame cost & debt at this university → $80,593 $89,968 $105,831 162

What this figure does and does not tell you

Two medians are worth separating. $66,111 is what the typical graduate earns — each programme counted in proportion to how many students it graduates. $58,157 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 Computer and Information Sciences sits above the middle by $29,614.

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.

Computer and Information Sciences at other levels

Master's — $80,705 (A)

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

Mechanical Engineering Related Technology — $58,522 Drafting & Design Engineering Technology — $58,673 Biomedical Engineering — $58,866 Quality Control — $59,286 Engineering Physics — $60,171 Civil Engineering — $60,523

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Computer and Information Sciences: the questions people ask

How much do Computer and Information Sciences graduates earn?
The median bachelor's graduate earns $66,111 two years after finishing (weighting each programme by how many students it graduates), across 440 US programmes that publish the figure. One year out it is $56,058.
Is a Computer and Information Sciences degree worth it?
Yes, on the money — this is one of the best-paying majors at this level in the country. The median graduate earns $26,591 a year more than a US worker whose highest qualification is a high-school diploma.
What is the salary range for Computer and Information Sciences?
Half of US programmes report medians between $50,439 and $67,660. Where you study moves this figure more than most applicants expect.
How many people graduate in Computer and Information Sciences each year?
About 44,025 students complete a bachelor's in this field each year across 938 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 Computer and Information Sciences, General (CIP 1101). 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.