undergradly.

Outcomes

Earnings trajectory

Earnings across the first decade (P25 / median / P75)

Census PSEO, bachelor's degree recipients, graduating cohort 0000 (19,784 graduates). Each point is one published percentile, not an average across fields.

Median earnings · 10yr
$61,767
Cost-adjusted: $69,542
Median debt (completers)
$20,705
Debt/earnings ratio: 0.34
3-yr default rate
0.0%
Borrowers who entered repayment in the published cohort year, not current students

College Scorecard. Earnings are measured ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike — not ten years after graduation.

The ten-year median of $61,767 is the number that carries this profile. Outcomes diverge sharply: a quarter of the students measured earn under $37,446 ten years after entry while a quarter clear $91,119. Regional prices work in graduates' favor here: the cost-adjusted equivalent of that median is $69,542. Students who finish carry a median of $20,705 in debt. The debt-to-income ratio of 0.34 is comfortable — debt is a small fraction of what graduates earn.

Economic mobility (Opportunity Insights)

Mobility rate
2.4%
Bottom → top quintile
Access Q1
7.9%
% from bottom quintile
Success rate Q1
29.6%
Q1 students reaching Q5

Opportunity Insights, students born 1980–1991 — a track record, not a forecast for today's entering class. The mobility rate is a share of all students (bottom-quintile origin and top-quintile outcome); the success rate is the share of bottom-quintile students alone who reach the top. They answer different questions and the second is always the larger number.

Earnings percentiles by field (Census PSEO)

One row per field and graduating cohort. Rows that share a field are different graduating classes, not repeats.

Field Graduating cohort Years after grad P25 Median P75
Communication, Journalism, and Related Programs (09) 2019 1 $22,385 $32,272 $45,075
Communication, Journalism, and Related Programs (09) 2016 1 $25,504 $34,840 $48,487
Communication, Journalism, and Related Programs (09) 2013 1 $25,504 $32,639 $41,695
Communication, Journalism, and Related Programs (09) 2010 1 $28,103 $37,132 $47,802
Communication, Journalism, and Related Programs (09) 0000 1 $25,504 $33,699 $45,390
Communication, Journalism, and Related Programs (09) 2016 5 $41,019 $53,485 $68,521
Communication, Journalism, and Related Programs (09) 2013 5 $36,560 $52,920 $78,843
Communication, Journalism, and Related Programs (09) 2010 5 $32,639 $49,855 $62,075
Communication, Journalism, and Related Programs (09) 0000 5 $37,841 $52,283 $71,899
Communication, Journalism, and Related Programs (09) 2010 10 $56,877 $90,582 $112,807
Communication, Journalism, and Related Programs (09) 0000 10 $56,877 $90,582 $112,807
Communication and Media Studies (09.01) 2019 1 $22,385 $32,272 $45,075

Census PSEO, bachelor's degree recipients — earnings measured 1, 5 and 10 years after graduation, unlike the Scorecard figures above. The all-fields institution total is published separately and is not one of the rows above. A cohort label covers a pooling window of three or five graduating years, which PSEO does not publish per cell.

Independent ROI ranking

Georgetown's Center on Education and the Workforce ranked this school #568 of 4,419 US colleges by 40-year return on investment — the net present value of attending after costs.

10-year NPV
$142,000
20-year NPV
$550,000
40-year NPV
$1,161,000

Georgetown University CEW, Ranking 4,500 Colleges by ROI (2022)