What Neurobiology and Neurosciences Graduates Earn

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

Start with the shape of the table: Neurobiology and Neurosciences pays $37,279 at the first measured horizon and $70,226 at the last, and those two medians rest on 6,628 and 3,616 graduates counted respectively. The headline figures weight each reporting program by its graduates counted, so the 400-graduate program moves the national number more than the 12-graduate one; the unweighted column beside it shows the middle program, plain and simple.

The trajectory is the story here: $37,279 at year one, $63,720 at year four, $70,226 at year five. That is 88% growth across the window Scorecard measures, worth $32,947 a year by the fifth year. Fields with flat early curves repay debt slowly; this one's curve works in the borrower’s favor.

One more cut of the year-one data: Pell recipients in Neurobiology and Neurosciences post a median of $36,885, non-recipients $36,268. That $617 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, Neurobiology and Neurosciences ranks 6 of 10 published bachelor's fields by five-year earnings; the family median at that horizon is $70,226. Its closest sibling is Microbiological Sciences and Immunology at $70,530, above this field's $70,226. Family comparisons strip out the broad field effect and leave the specific program choice exposed.

Ranked across all 182 published fields, Neurobiology and Neurosciences stands number 82 by five-year earnings and number 158 by first-year earnings, and number 44 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

The median graduate in this field leaves school owing $19,500 in federal loans, the graduate-weighted median across the 133 programs reporting debt. That is 52% of the first-year median earnings, or about 6.3 months of gross pay at $37,279 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 Neurobiology and Neurosciences among programs with at least 30 graduates in the count, led by University of Southern California at $98,803, against a national field median of $70,226.

A median is a middle graduate, not a promise: half of University of Southern California's counted graduates earn less than $98,803. Weigh any program here against its own price using the net price estimator and the degree cost calculator.

Two more facts about the shape of this field: the five highest-paying programs in the table account for only 9.5% of the 3,616 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 $98,803 sits 41% above the national field median of $70,226. Its median debt, $18,309, runs below the field median of $19,500, which is the trade a student at the top of this table is actually being offered.