What Political Science and Government Graduates Earn

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

The three rows below are the whole earnings story Scorecard can tell about Political Science and Government: $44,063, then $64,270, then $70,944. Each median is graduate-weighted, built from 519 programs at year one and 567 at year five, and the unweighted program median sits alongside so a reader can see how much the weighting itself is doing.

Earnings in this field climb $26,881 between the first and fifth year, a 61% rise that beats 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.

By Pell status, the year-one medians for Political Science and Government are $43,752 (received Pell) and $46,070 (did not), $2,318 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, Political Science and Government ranks 4 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, above this field's $70,944. Family comparisons strip out the broad field effect and leave the specific program choice exposed.

Ranked across all 182 published fields, Political Science and Government stands number 76 by five-year earnings and number 103 by first-year earnings, and number 35 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 41 places.

The debt side of the same degree

Debt first, because earnings get the headlines: $19,361 is the median federal loan balance at graduation in Political Science and Government, pooled from 488 reporting programs. Against year-one earnings of $44,063 that balance is 44% of a year's gross pay, roughly 5.3 months of it. The standard 10-year repayment at 6.52% (the 2026-27 undergraduate Direct Loan rate) runs $220 a month and $7,043 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

One field, many markets: the five-year median for Political Science and Government is $70,944 nationally, yet the strongest programs below run far ahead of it. The ranking keeps a 30-graduate floor under every entry, and Yale University heads the list at $131,489.

A median is a middle graduate, not a promise: half of Yale University's counted graduates earn less than $131,489. 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 0.8% of the 39,078 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 $131,489 sits 85% above the national field median of $70,944. Its median debt, $15,000, runs below the field median of $19,361, which is the trade a student at the top of this table is actually being offered.