What Linguistic, Comparative, and Related Language Studies and Services Graduates Earn
How much do Linguistic, Comparative, and Related Language Studies and Services bachelor's graduates earn?
Graduates of bachelor's programs in Linguistic, Comparative, and Related Language Studies and Services earn a median of $32,556 one year after graduation and $56,160 five years out, across the 76 programs reporting to College Scorecard. The median debt at graduation is $18,410.
Earnings first, debt second, method in the open: the Linguistic, Comparative, and Related Language Studies and Services page of the degree earnings branch, built from 406 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 Linguistic, Comparative, and Related Language Studies and Services: $32,556, then $51,416, then $56,160. Each median is graduate-weighted, built from 76 programs at year one and 99 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 | $32,556 | $33,555 | 2,556 | 16.0% |
| 4 years after graduation | $51,416 | $50,748 | 3,140 | n/p |
| 5 years after graduation | $56,160 | $55,185 | 3,599 | 49.4% |
Earnings in this field climb $23,604 between the first and fifth year, a 73% rise that trails the all-fields pattern (the median field in this dataset pays $45,010 at year one and $65,763 at year five). Early-career growth this shape usually means the first job is a foothold: licensure, a portfolio, or a first promotion does the heavy lifting.
One more cut of the year-one data: Pell recipients in Linguistic, Comparative, and Related Language Studies and Services post a median of $39,702, non-recipients $36,003. That $3,699 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, Linguistic, Comparative, and Related Language Studies and Services ranks 3 of 4 published bachelor's fields by five-year earnings; the family median at that horizon is $56,160. Its closest sibling is East Asian Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics at $57,030, above this field's $56,160. Family comparisons strip out the broad field effect and leave the specific program choice exposed.
Ranked across all 182 published fields, Linguistic, Comparative, and Related Language Studies and Services stands number 134 by five-year earnings and number 174 by first-year earnings, and number 16 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 118 places.
The debt side of the same degree
The median graduate in this field leaves school owing $18,410 in federal loans, the graduate-weighted median across the 69 programs reporting debt. That is 57% of the first-year median earnings, or about 6.8 months of gross pay at $32,556 a year. On the standard 10-year plan at the 2026-27 undergraduate rate of 6.52%, the payment is $209 a month and interest adds $6,698 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
One field, many markets: the five-year median for Linguistic, Comparative, and Related Language Studies and Services is $56,160 nationally, yet the strongest programs below run far ahead of it. The ranking keeps a 30-graduate floor under every entry, and University of California-Berkeley heads the list at $85,634.
| Institution | Median earnings, 5 years | Median earnings, 1 year | Median debt | Graduates counted (5yr) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of California-Berkeley | $85,634 | $28,857 | $13,756 | 31 |
| Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University | $78,282 | $44,759 | $20,500 | 80 |
| University of California-Los Angeles | $76,734 | $35,676 | $10,000 | 151 |
| University of California-Santa Barbara | $76,464 | $31,482 | $10,166 | 91 |
| James Madison University | $74,561 | $42,508 | $25,000 | 68 |
A program median describes that program's own graduates in that program's own labor market; University of California-Berkeley at $85,634 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 11.7% of the 3,599 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 $85,634 sits 52% above the national field median of $56,160. Its median debt, $13,756, runs below the field median of $18,410, which is the trade a student at the top of this table is actually being offered.
Frequently asked questions
How much do Linguistic, Comparative, and Related Language Studies and Services graduates earn?
The national median is $32,556 one year after graduation and $56,160 five years after, across the 76 bachelor's programs reporting 1-year earnings to College Scorecard (October 2026 release), weighted by graduates counted.
How much debt do Linguistic, Comparative, and Related Language Studies and Services graduates carry?
The median cumulative federal loan debt at graduation is $18,410. On a standard 10-year plan at 6.52% that is $209 a month and $6,698 of interest in total.
How were the Linguistic, Comparative, and Related Language Studies and Services 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 (2,556 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 Linguistic, Comparative, and Related Language Studies and Services worth it?
The inputs are on this page: $56,160 median earnings at year five against $18,410 median debt. The verdict depends on your actual cost, so run your numbers through the college ROI calculator and the college major ROI calculator.