What American Sign Language Graduates Earn
How much do American Sign Language bachelor's graduates earn?
The median American Sign Language bachelor's graduate starts at $38,125 and reaches $49,765 by year five in the federal Scorecard data (17 programs reporting at that horizon). Median debt at graduation: $22,000.
Earnings first, debt second, method in the open: the American Sign Language page of the degree earnings branch, built from 59 bachelor's programs in the October 2026 Scorecard release.
Updated November 5, 2026
Median earnings at 1, 4, and 5 years (College Scorecard)
The three rows below are the whole earnings story Scorecard can tell about American Sign Language: $38,125, then $45,619, then $49,765. Each median is graduate-weighted, built from 18 programs at year one and 17 at year five, and the unweighted program median sits alongside so a reader can see how much the weighting itself is doing.
| Horizon | Median earnings (graduate-weighted) | Median program (unweighted) | Graduates counted | Share earning above the high-school threshold |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 year after graduation | $38,125 | $38,767 | 482 | 7.1% |
| 4 years after graduation | $45,619 | $45,474 | 524 | n/p |
| 5 years after graduation | $49,765 | $50,080 | 471 | 33.5% |
From $38,125 in the first year to $49,765 in the fifth, earnings grow 31% ($11,640). For scale, the median bachelor's field in the Scorecard file grows from $45,010 to $65,763 over the same span, so this field's early-career slope is gentler than typical.
The Pell split adds a second lens on the $38,125 year-one median: graduates who received Pell Grants earn a median of $34,412, and graduates who did not earn $39,700, a gap of $5,288. Read it as a map of where each group studied and the networks they carried in, not as the degree paying two different wages for the same work.
Inside its own CIP family, American Sign Language ranks 4 of 4 published bachelor's fields by five-year earnings; the family median at that horizon is $56,160. Its closest sibling is Linguistic, Comparative, and Related Language Studies and Services at $56,160, above this field's $49,765. Family comparisons strip out the broad field effect and leave the specific program choice exposed.
Ranked across all 182 published fields, American Sign Language stands number 162 by five-year earnings and number 152 by first-year earnings, and number 124 from the lowest median debt. Those three ranks together are the field's fingerprint: high earn rank with a low debt rank is the combination students are actually shopping for, and this field's spread between them is 38 places.
The debt side of the same degree
What does the median American Sign Language graduate owe? $22,000, the graduate-weighted median over 8 programs with published debt figures. The ratio that matters is debt to first-year earnings: 58%, or 6.9 months of gross pay at the $38,125 median. At the 2026-27 undergraduate loan rate of 6.52%, the standard decade of repayment is $250 a month with $8,004 of interest on top. Model a different balance in the student loan payoff calculator before you borrow it, and sanity-check the degree in the college major ROI calculator.
Where graduates of this field earn the most
The national median hides the real spread: inside American Sign Language, individual programs post five-year medians far from $49,765 in both directions. Below are the highest, filtered to programs with 30 or more graduates counted at five years; Columbia College Chicago sits first at $53,459.
| Institution | Median earnings, 5 years | Median earnings, 1 year | Median debt | Graduates counted (5yr) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Columbia College Chicago | $53,459 | $37,067 | $25,903 | 32 |
| Western Oregon University | $51,690 | $32,486 | $21,875 | 30 |
| Utah Valley University | $50,080 | $31,025 | n/p | 31 |
| Rochester Institute of Technology | $48,293 | $32,345 | $22,000 | 33 |
| William Woods University | $44,281 | $39,453 | $14,000 | 70 |
A program median describes that program's own graduates in that program's own labor market; Columbia College Chicago at $53,459 is evidence about a place and a mix of students, not a wage offer. Put the same programs' prices next to these figures with the degree cost calculator and the net price estimator before ranking anything.
Two more facts about the shape of this field: the five highest-paying programs in the table account for only 41.6% of the 471 graduates counted at five years, so the top of the table is a thin slice and not the field's center; and the leading program's five-year median of $53,459 sits 7% above the national field median of $49,765. Its median debt, $25,903, runs above the field median of $22,000, which is the trade a student at the top of this table is actually being offered.
Frequently asked questions
How much do American Sign Language graduates earn?
The national median is $38,125 one year after graduation and $49,765 five years after, across the 18 bachelor's programs reporting 1-year earnings to College Scorecard (October 2026 release), weighted by graduates counted.
How much debt do American Sign Language graduates carry?
The median cumulative federal loan debt at graduation is $22,000. On a standard 10-year plan at 6.52% that is $250 a month and $8,004 of interest in total.
How were the American Sign Language national figures computed?
Scorecard publishes one median per program; this page takes the median of those program medians weighted by each program's graduates counted (482 people at year one), and prints the unweighted median program beside it. The field cleared a publication bar of at least 10 programs reporting at every horizon.
Is a degree in American Sign Language worth it?
The inputs are on this page: $49,765 median earnings at year five against $22,000 median debt. The verdict depends on your actual cost, so run your numbers through the college ROI calculator and the college major ROI calculator.