What Plant 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 $44,702 year-one median and the $61,570 year-five median for Plant Sciences come from federal earnings records pooled across 93 bachelor's programs. The headline median weights programs by graduates counted (1,791 at year one); the second column is the unweighted median program, printed so the method stays visible.

Five years out, the median graduate earns $61,570, which is $16,868 more than the year-one median of $44,702 (38% 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.

One more cut of the year-one data: Pell recipients in Plant Sciences post a median of $43,921, non-recipients $50,653. That $6,732 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, Plant Sciences ranks 3 of 8 published bachelor's fields by five-year earnings; the family median at that horizon is $57,898. Its closest sibling is Agricultural Public Services at $58,622, below this field's $61,570. Family comparisons strip out the broad field effect and leave the specific program choice exposed.

Ranked across all 182 published fields, Plant Sciences stands number 107 by five-year earnings and number 94 by first-year earnings, and number 34 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 73 places.

The debt side of the same degree

Debt first, because earnings get the headlines: $19,333 is the median federal loan balance at graduation in Plant Sciences, pooled from 39 reporting programs. Against year-one earnings of $44,702 that balance is 43% of a year's gross pay, roughly 5.2 months of it. The standard 10-year repayment at 6.52% (the 2026-27 undergraduate Direct Loan rate) runs $220 a month and $7,033 in total interest. Your own balance and rate belong in the student loan payoff calculator; the degree-level verdict belongs in the college ROI calculator and the college major ROI calculator.

Where graduates of this field earn the most

The national median hides the real spread: inside Plant Sciences, individual programs post five-year medians far from $61,570 in both directions. Below are the highest, filtered to programs with 30 or more graduates counted at five years; California State University-Chico sits first at $81,572.

A program median describes that program's own graduates in that program's own labor market; California State University-Chico at $81,572 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 12.4% of the 2,046 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 $81,572 sits 32% above the national field median of $61,570. Its median debt, $12,767, runs below the field median of $19,333, which is the trade a student at the top of this table is actually being offered.