Highest-Paying Liberal Arts Programs
Colleges whose liberal arts graduates earn the most one year after finishing, across all bachelor's programs in the field.
Ranked by median earnings, 1 year after completing · 448 of 2,406 institutions report this measure · Compiled 2026-09-01
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Top schools on this list that also show up elsewhere — hop lists without leaving the trail.
#1
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA
#3
American Public University System
Charles Town, WV
- 1Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyCambridge, MA · Private$69,338Compare nearby
Also on 15 other lists
- Graduates Earn the Most 10 Years Out#1
- Biological Sciences#1
- Business#1
- Multidisciplinary Studies#2
- Physical Sciences#2
- Best Early-Career Earnings, 6 Years After Enrolling#3
- the Highest SAT Averages#4
- Best Student-to-Faculty Ratios#5
- Best Earnings-to-Debt Ratio#6
- Most Selective Colleges in America#7
- Highest Four-Year Graduation Rates#8
- Computer Science#10
- Engineering#11
- Mathematics & Statistics#12
- Are Least Likely to Leave#14
- 2Bentley UniversityWaltham, MA · Private$64,245Compare nearby
- 3American Public University SystemCharles Town, WV · For-profit$60,771Compare nearby
- 4DePaul UniversityChicago, IL · Private$60,415Compare nearby
- 5Champlain CollegeBurlington, VT · Private$57,318Compare nearby
- 6St. Francis CollegeBrooklyn, NY · Private$53,810Compare nearby
- 7University of HartfordWest Hartford, CT · Private$52,107Compare nearby
- 8Purdue University GlobalWest Lafayette, IN · Public$51,482Compare nearby
- 9Hobart William Smith CollegesGeneva, NY · Private$50,022Compare nearby
- 10Oklahoma City UniversityOklahoma City, OK · Private$49,683Compare nearby
- 11Excelsior UniversityAlbany, NY · Private$49,498Compare nearby
- 12Pepperdine UniversityMalibu, CA · Private$49,058Compare nearby
- 13Drexel UniversityPhiladelphia, PA · Private$48,823Compare nearby
- 14Southern Methodist UniversityDallas, TX · Private$48,667Compare nearby
- 15Southern New Hampshire UniversityManchester, NH · Private$48,634Compare nearby
- 16Saint Joseph's UniversityPhiladelphia, PA · Private$48,432Compare nearby
- 17University of St ThomasHouston, TX · Private$48,198Compare nearby
- 18Purdue University-Main CampusWest Lafayette, IN · Public$47,729Compare nearby
- 19North Carolina State University at RaleighRaleigh, NC · Public$47,260Compare nearby
- 20Providence CollegeProvidence, RI · Private$47,260Compare nearby
- 21Thomas More UniversityCrestview Hills, KY · Private$47,118Compare nearby
- 22Xavier UniversityCincinnati, OH · Private$45,852Compare nearby
- 23William Jewell CollegeLiberty, MO · Private$45,696Compare nearby
- 24Saint Mary's College of CaliforniaMoraga, CA · Private$44,971Compare nearby
- 25Belmont UniversityNashville, TN · Private$44,542Compare nearby
How this list was built
- Measure
- Median earnings, 1 year after completing — sorted highest to lowest
- Source variable
EARN_MDN_HI_1YR- Dataset
- U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard, Most-Recent-Cohorts-Field-of-Study (04-17-2025 release)
- Where a college offers several liberal arts programs, the figure shown is the median across those programs.
- Earnings cover graduates who received federal financial aid, were working and not enrolled one year after completing, and whose highest credential is that bachelor's degree.
- 448 institutions report earnings for this field; programs with too few graduates are suppressed for privacy by the Department of Education and cannot be ranked.
A single measure is a narrow way to judge a college. Read this alongside the others, and see the methodology for what these figures do and do not capture.
Keep exploring
- Re-rank with your weightsRe-score with your weights, filtered to Liberal Arts
- Showdown: Massachusetts Institute of Technology vs Bentley UniversityHigher-or-lower on Scorecard metrics — round 1 is these two
- Live leaderboardReshuffle Top 10–50 on one Scorecard measure
- Explore games & mapsShowdown, Name That College, sports, and more lists
- Sports at Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyEADA programs for the #1 school on this list
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