What Behavioral Sciences Graduates Earn

Median earnings at 1, 4, and 5 years (College Scorecard)

Nothing on this page is a survey response or a recruiter's claim: the $39,798 year-one median and the $49,748 year-five median for Behavioral Sciences come from federal earnings records pooled across 79 bachelor's programs. The headline median weights programs by graduates counted (2,011 at year one); the second column is the unweighted median program, printed so the method stays visible.

Five years out, the median graduate earns $49,748, which is $9,950 more than the year-one median of $39,798 (25% growth). Set against the median field overall ($45,010 at year one, $65,763 at year five), this field starts below the pack and ends below it.

Scorecard separates the first-year figure by Pell history for this field: $39,406 for graduates who received Pell, $39,564 for those who did not. The $158 difference tracks institutional mix and starting networks far more than it tracks the credential itself, and it is printed here because a Pell student comparing programs deserves the unblended number.

Inside its own CIP family, Behavioral Sciences ranks 8 of 8 published bachelor's fields by five-year earnings; the family median at that horizon is $62,349. Its closest sibling is Multi-/Interdisciplinary Studies, General at $53,119, above this field's $49,748. Family comparisons strip out the broad field effect and leave the specific program choice exposed.

Ranked across all 182 published fields, Behavioral Sciences stands number 163 by five-year earnings and number 138 by first-year earnings, and number 54 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 109 places.

The debt side of the same degree

The median graduate in this field leaves school owing $19,500 in federal loans, the graduate-weighted median across the 15 programs reporting debt. That is 49% of the first-year median earnings, or about 5.9 months of gross pay at $39,798 a year. On the standard 10-year plan at the 2026-27 undergraduate rate of 6.52%, the payment is $222 a month and interest adds $7,094 over the life of the loan. Price your own borrowing with the student loan payoff calculator, and test the whole degree in the college ROI calculator or the college major ROI calculator.

Where graduates of this field earn the most

Where a student studies inside this field matters at least as much as the field itself. These five programs post the strongest five-year medians in Behavioral Sciences among programs with at least 30 graduates in the count, led by San Jose State University at $78,753, against a national field median of $49,748.

A program median describes that program's own graduates in that program's own labor market; San Jose State University at $78,753 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 85.1% of the 6,149 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 $78,753 sits 58% above the national field median of $49,748. Its graduates' debt figure is not published, one of the gaps this page leaves visible rather than filling.