What Chemistry Graduates Earn
How much do Chemistry bachelor's graduates earn?
One year out, the median bachelor's graduate in Chemistry earns $48,360; five years out, $72,034. The figures pool 6,860 graduates counted at the first horizon, and the median debt carried out of school is $19,500.
For a student weighing Chemistry: the starting median is $48,360, the five-year median is $72,034, and the median borrower owes $19,500. Here is every one of those numbers with its workings shown.
Updated November 5, 2026
Median earnings at 1, 4, and 5 years (College Scorecard)
Nothing on this page is a survey response or a recruiter's claim: the $48,360 year-one median and the $72,034 year-five median for Chemistry come from federal earnings records pooled across 1,188 bachelor's programs. The headline median weights programs by graduates counted (6,860 at year one); the second column is the unweighted median program, printed so the method stays visible.
| Horizon | Median earnings (graduate-weighted) | Median program (unweighted) | Graduates counted | Share earning above the high-school threshold |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 year after graduation | $48,360 | $48,530 | 6,860 | 34.7% |
| 4 years after graduation | $67,006 | $66,077 | 6,777 | n/p |
| 5 years after graduation | $72,034 | $70,989 | 8,676 | 55.3% |
Five years out, the median graduate earns $72,034, which is $23,674 more than the year-one median of $48,360 (49% growth). Set against the median field overall ($45,010 at year one, $65,763 at year five), this field starts above the pack and ends above it.
By Pell status, the year-one medians for Chemistry are $48,769 (received Pell) and $48,607 (did not), $162 apart. The split is a reminder that a field median averages over very different starting points; the institution a student picks inside the field moves their personal figure more than the field label does.
Inside its own CIP family, Chemistry ranks 2 of 4 published bachelor's fields by five-year earnings; the family median at that horizon is $66,076. Its closest sibling is Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology at $66,076, below this field's $72,034. Family comparisons strip out the broad field effect and leave the specific program choice exposed.
Ranked across all 182 published fields, Chemistry stands number 72 by five-year earnings and number 76 by first-year earnings, and number 43 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 29 places.
The debt side of the same degree
What does the median Chemistry graduate owe? $19,500, the graduate-weighted median over 174 programs with published debt figures. The ratio that matters is debt to first-year earnings: 40%, or 4.8 months of gross pay at the $48,360 median. At the 2026-27 undergraduate loan rate of 6.52%, the standard decade of repayment is $222 a month with $7,094 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 Chemistry, individual programs post five-year medians far from $72,034 in both directions. Below are the highest, filtered to programs with 30 or more graduates counted at five years; University of California-Berkeley sits first at $98,220.
| Institution | Median earnings, 5 years | Median earnings, 1 year | Median debt | Graduates counted (5yr) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of California-Berkeley | $98,220 | $57,704 | $11,137 | 41 |
| Northeastern University | $93,198 | $84,338 | n/p | 42 |
| University of California-San Diego | $91,369 | $55,576 | $13,511 | 129 |
| Temple University | $89,218 | $54,798 | $25,000 | 50 |
| University of Delaware | $89,104 | $62,270 | $23,250 | 40 |
High program medians concentrate in high-wage metros and selective intakes, so read $98,220 as a market fact before reading it as a quality verdict. Costs for the same programs are checkable in the degree cost calculator and the net price estimator.
Two more facts about the shape of this field: the five highest-paying programs in the table account for only 3.5% of the 8,676 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 $98,220 sits 36% above the national field median of $72,034. Its median debt, $11,137, runs below the field median of $19,500, which is the trade a student at the top of this table is actually being offered.
Frequently asked questions
How much do Chemistry graduates earn?
The national median is $48,360 one year after graduation and $72,034 five years after, across the 199 bachelor's programs reporting 1-year earnings to College Scorecard (October 2026 release), weighted by graduates counted.
How much debt do Chemistry graduates carry?
The median cumulative federal loan debt at graduation is $19,500. On a standard 10-year plan at 6.52% that is $222 a month and $7,094 of interest in total.
How were the Chemistry 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 (6,860 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 Chemistry worth it?
The inputs are on this page: $72,034 median earnings at year five against $19,500 median debt. The verdict depends on your actual cost, so run your numbers through the college ROI calculator and the college major ROI calculator.