Bachelor's degree · Communication and journalism · CIP 09.01
Communication and Media Studies: earnings and debt by college
The College Scorecard lists 1,036 colleges that award bachelor's degrees in Communication and Media Studies, together awarding 43,532 of these degrees in the most recent year. At the median institution, graduates who received federal aid earn $41,952 one year after finishing and $57,294 five years after finishing (two separate graduating classes). The median institution's graduates leave with $22,500 in federal student loans.
Source: U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard.
Colleges
1,036
Degrees awarded per yeariBachelor's degrees the school awarded in this major in the most recent reported year.
43,532
Median earnings, 1 yriMedian earnings of graduates who received federal aid, 1 year after finishing, among those working and not enrolled. The figure here is the median across institutions; branch campuses share their institution's figure and count once.
$41,952
562 reporting
Median earnings, 5 yrsiMedian earnings of graduates who received federal aid, 5 years after finishing, among those working and not enrolled. The figure here is the median across institutions; branch campuses share their institution's figure and count once.
$57,294
603 reporting
Median debtiMedian federal student-loan balance of the program's graduates. Excludes Parent PLUS and private loans. The figure here is the median across institutions; branch campuses share their institution's figure and count once.
$22,500
497 reporting
Compare Communication and Media Studies programs on one chart
Pick any two measures. Hover a dot to see the college; click it to open the college's page.
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Each dot is one institution's program; branch campuses share their institution's figures and appear as one dot. Dashed lines mark the median for all colleges. Showing 446 of 978; programs missing either value are left out (the Scorecard withholds figures for small programs).
Colleges with a bachelor's in Communication and Media Studies
| University of California-Santa Barbara Santa Barbara · Public | CA | 649 | $51,428 | $83,810 | $12,000 |
| California State University-Fullerton Fullerton · Public | CA | 601 | $43,310 | $66,618 | $12,437 |
| University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill · Public | NC | 534 | $49,277 | $76,055 | $12,886 |
| Ohio State University-Main Campus Columbus · Public | OH | 449 | $46,999 | $67,514 | $20,100 |
| Texas A&M University-College Station College Station · Public | TX | 440 | $52,276 | $67,773 | $17,592 |
| Arizona State University Digital Immersion Scottsdale · Public | AZ | 439 | $49,768 | $65,800 | $19,500 |
| James Madison University Harrisonburg · Public | VA | 439 | $48,809 | $73,558 | $20,500 |
| University of Central Florida Orlando · Public | FL | 362 | $42,354 | $57,422 | $18,070 |
| California State University-Sacramento Sacramento · Public | CA | 361 | $45,623 | $64,849 | $15,000 |
| California State University-Long Beach Long Beach · Public | CA | 352 | $39,638 | $66,516 | $13,344 |
| Indiana University-Bloomington Bloomington · Public | IN | 348 | $45,006 | $65,923 | $19,500 |
| Arizona State University Campus Immersion Tempe · Public | AZ | 347 | $49,768 | $65,800 | $19,500 |
| Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Baton Rouge · Public | LA | 332 | $41,301 | $61,982 | $19,500 |
| University of Washington-Seattle Campus Seattle · Public | WA | 318 | $47,679 | $70,524 | $13,446 |
| San Diego State University San Diego · Public | CA | 303 | $44,976 | $70,205 | $13,750 |
| University of California-Davis Davis · Public | CA | 301 | $45,174 | $77,245 | $11,000 |
| Grand Canyon University Phoenix · Private nonprofit | AZ | 297 | $46,438 | $56,332 | $26,000 |
| University at Buffalo Buffalo · Public | NY | 293 | $39,534 | $64,348 | $20,500 |
| Rutgers University-New Brunswick New Brunswick · Public | NJ | 288 | $48,949 | $75,056 | $19,500 |
| University of Massachusetts-Amherst Amherst · Public | MA | 288 | $42,529 | $72,724 | $23,250 |
| Michigan State University East Lansing · Public | MI | 284 | $45,044 | $65,754 | $19,750 |
| University of Connecticut Storrs · Public | CT | 280 | $44,213 | $74,835 | $19,500 |
| University of North Carolina at Charlotte Charlotte · Public | NC | 277 | $44,775 | $62,713 | $20,500 |
| University of South Florida Tampa · Public | FL | 275 | $40,858 | $56,184 | $18,750 |
| The University of Texas at San Antonio San Antonio · Public | TX | 271 | $39,671 | $55,223 | $22,419 |
| University of California-Los Angeles Los Angeles · Public | CA | 266 | $53,885 | n/a | $13,000 |
| University of Utah Salt Lake City · Public | UT | 261 | $46,807 | $69,701 | $18,500 |
| University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Champaign · Public | IL | 260 | $45,667 | $75,002 | $16,185 |
| East Carolina University Greenville · Public | NC | 259 | $41,763 | $62,336 | $20,456 |
| University of California-Berkeley Berkeley · Public | CA | 258 | $52,119 | $95,154 | $11,000 |
| University of Maryland-College Park College Park · Public | MD | 258 | $53,870 | $81,843 | $17,924 |
| University of Southern California Los Angeles · Private nonprofit | CA | 252 | $57,017 | $85,197 | $16,875 |
| University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison · Public | WI | 252 | $46,117 | $63,885 | $19,500 |
| Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Blacksburg · Public | VA | 249 | $48,643 | $69,427 | $20,415 |
| University of Phoenix-Arizona Phoenix · Private for-profit | AZ | 248 | $50,664 | $60,549 | $40,542 |
| University of California-San Diego La Jolla · Public | CA | 244 | $38,629 | $71,682 | $11,743 |
| Florida International University Miami · Public | FL | 241 | $41,994 | $61,083 | $16,691 |
| Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton · Public | FL | 238 | $42,092 | $58,485 | $19,500 |
| University of Kentucky Lexington · Public | KY | 236 | $43,783 | $59,809 | $22,500 |
| University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Ann Arbor · Public | MI | 233 | $55,475 | $88,957 | $21,116 |
| University of Arizona Tucson · Public | AZ | 228 | $54,066 | $75,287 | $16,500 |
| California State University-Northridge Northridge · Public | CA | 220 | $39,561 | $61,808 | $14,533 |
| Baylor University Waco · Private nonprofit | TX | 218 | $49,439 | $65,514 | $20,500 |
| San Francisco State University San Francisco · Public | CA | 211 | $48,274 | $68,651 | $15,000 |
| Boise State University Boise · Public | ID | 210 | $41,322 | $58,371 | $19,500 |
| North Carolina State University at Raleigh Raleigh · Public | NC | 201 | $46,760 | $71,350 | $18,500 |
| Liberty University Lynchburg · Private nonprofit | VA | 199 | $41,708 | $58,504 | $19,500 |
| Sam Houston State University Huntsville · Public | TX | 194 | $39,363 | $52,917 | $23,125 |
| Texas Tech University Lubbock · Public | TX | 192 | $44,524 | $59,719 | $22,746 |
| University of Delaware Newark · Public | DE | 192 | $47,911 | $81,626 | $24,111 |
Showing 50 of 1,036. Starts sorted by degrees awarded; select a column to sort.
Quick facts: Communication and Media Studies
- How many colleges offer a bachelor's degree in Communication and Media Studies?
- The College Scorecard lists 1,036 colleges that award bachelor's degrees in Communication and Media Studies.
- How much do Communication and Media Studies graduates earn?
- Across institutions, the median of graduates' median earnings is $41,952 one year after graduation (562 institutions reporting) and $57,294 five years after graduation (603 institutions reporting). These figures cover graduates who received federal aid and are working and not enrolled in school. Branch campuses share their institution's figures, so each institution counts once.
- Where do Communication and Media Studies graduates earn the most five years after graduation?
- By reported median earnings five years after graduation: University of Pennsylvania ($112,568), Boston College ($98,503), Santa Clara University ($97,296), University of California-Berkeley ($95,154), and Cornell University ($94,133).
- How much student debt do Communication and Media Studies graduates have?
- The median institution's Communication and Media Studies graduates leave with $22,500 in federal student loans (497 institutions reporting). Parent PLUS and private loans are not included.
- Which colleges award the most Communication and Media Studies degrees?
- By bachelor's degrees awarded in the most recent year: University of California-Santa Barbara (649), California State University-Fullerton (601), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (534), Ohio State University-Main Campus (449), and Texas A&M University-College Station (440).
Related majors in communication and journalism
How these numbers work
Figures cover bachelor's degree programs in Communication and Media Studies (CIP code 09.01), as reported in the College Scorecard. Earnings are medians for graduates who received federal aid, measured one and five years after they finished, among those working and not enrolled in school; the one-year and five-year figures describe different graduating classes. Debt is the median federal loan balance at graduation. The Scorecard withholds figures for programs with few graduates, so many smaller programs show n/a. Summary figures are medians across institutions: the Scorecard reports program earnings and debt for a whole institution, so branch campuses share one figure and count once. All figures are from the Scorecard's most recent field-of-study release. More on the data.