Master's · earnings grade

Is a Teaching degree worth it?

Graduates earn a median $45,383 two years after finishing, more than 27% of master's majors. Measured across 800 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 $45,383 2 years after finishing · per graduate
Typical range $41,789–$50,439 middle half of US programmes
Over no degree +$5,863 vs $39,520 high-school median
Graduates a year 27,930 800 programmes

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

#University1 yr out2 yrs out3 yrs outGraduates/yr
1 Texas A&M University-College Station cost & debt at this university → $53,788 $78,971 $82,953 43
2 University of Mount Saint Vincent not published $78,971 not published
3 Touro University California not published $71,015 not published 1
4 California State University-Northridge cost & debt at this university → $68,695 $70,536 $76,807
5 Relay Graduate School of Education $65,046 $70,445 $76,806 1,009
6 Kansas State University cost & debt at this university → $43,832 $68,219 $82,805 130
7 Pace University cost & debt at this university → $68,104 $67,507 $70,760 94
8 Fordham University cost & debt at this university → $66,851 $65,944 $67,414 39
9 St. John's University-New York $67,003 $65,131 $70,740 19
10 Rowan University $59,571 $63,005 $64,818 20
11 Kean University $57,317 $62,579 $59,517 25
12 Wagner College cost & debt at this university → $64,160 $62,508 $65,911 14

What this figure does and does not tell you

Two medians are worth separating. $45,383 is what the typical graduate earns — each programme counted in proportion to how many students it graduates. $45,668 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 Teaching sits below the middle by $7,454.

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.

Teaching at other levels

Scholarships for Teaching students

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

See all Teaching scholarships →

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Teaching: the questions people ask

How much do Teaching graduates earn?
The median master's graduate earns $45,383 two years after finishing (weighting each programme by how many students it graduates), across 389 US programmes that publish the figure. One year out it is $46,233.
Is a Teaching degree worth it?
Financially it is a slower start than most majors at this level — worth planning your borrowing around. The median graduate earns $5,863 a year more than a US worker whose highest qualification is a high-school diploma.
What is the salary range for Teaching?
Half of US programmes report medians between $41,789 and $50,439. Where you study moves this figure more than most applicants expect.
How many people graduate in Teaching each year?
About 27,930 students complete a master's in this field each year across 800 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.

Classified by the Department of Education as Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Levels and Methods (CIP 1312). 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.