What International Relations and National Security Studies 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 $47,319 year-one median and the $73,069 year-five median for International Relations and National Security Studies come from federal earnings records pooled across 409 bachelor's programs. The headline median weights programs by graduates counted (6,206 at year one); the second column is the unweighted median program, printed so the method stays visible.

Five years out, the median graduate earns $73,069, which is $25,750 more than the year-one median of $47,319 (54% 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.

One more cut of the year-one data: Pell recipients in International Relations and National Security Studies post a median of $48,220, non-recipients $49,491. That $1,271 gap is the distance between two different student populations studying under one field name, and it narrows or widens by institution, which the program table below hints at.

Inside its own CIP family, International Relations and National Security Studies ranks 2 of 10 published bachelor's fields by five-year earnings; the family median at that horizon is $63,401. Its closest sibling is Urban Studies/Affairs at $71,108, below this field's $73,069. Family comparisons strip out the broad field effect and leave the specific program choice exposed.

Ranked across all 182 published fields, International Relations and National Security Studies stands number 69 by five-year earnings and number 79 by first-year earnings, and number 60 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 9 places.

The debt side of the same degree

What does the median International Relations and National Security Studies graduate owe? $19,709, the graduate-weighted median over 79 programs with published debt figures. The ratio that matters is debt to first-year earnings: 42%, or 5.0 months of gross pay at the $47,319 median. At the 2026-27 undergraduate loan rate of 6.52%, the standard decade of repayment is $224 a month with $7,170 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

One field, many markets: the five-year median for International Relations and National Security Studies is $73,069 nationally, yet the strongest programs below run far ahead of it. The ranking keeps a 30-graduate floor under every entry, and Johns Hopkins University heads the list at $105,903.

High program medians concentrate in high-wage metros and selective intakes, so read $105,903 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 6.1% of the 7,226 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 $105,903 sits 45% above the national field median of $73,069. Its graduates' debt figure is not published, one of the gaps this page leaves visible rather than filling.