TYPICAL PAY, BY STATE

What does this degree pay, where you live?

Pick a degree. The map shows real BLS pay in related careers, by state — pick entry-level, typical, or experienced pay below; hover a state for the full breakdown.

Overall (all related occupations)

Related occupations for this degree, from the NCES/BLS CIP-SOC crosswalk

Computer Science

Typical pay by state

Hover for a quick look, or click a state to pin its full salary breakdown below.

Pay percentile — real BLS wage distribution, not a formula
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i About this data
Related occupations and their pay come from the real federal NCES/BLS CIP-SOC crosswalk and BLS OEWS wage tables (national and state-level) — including which states pay more or less for this degree's occupations. Entry-level (10th percentile) and experienced (90th percentile) are also real BLS figures now, not a formula — use the pay-percentile control above to switch the map, breakdown, and school-cost comparison below between them; BLS's own convention treats the 10th percentile as an entry-level proxy since OEWS doesn't survey by years of experience, so it skews toward less-experienced workers rather than measuring literal first-year pay. A specific percentile is occasionally not reported for a state even when the median is — when that happens, the page falls back to typical (median) pay and says so rather than showing a blank. A small number of majors the crosswalk doesn't map to a specific occupation fall back to the real U.S. average across all occupations. The cost-of-living index used for the "adjusted for cost of living" view is real, sourced data (see the note below the breakdown). The college rankings below are real too — ranked by actual reported earnings for this specific major at each school (U.S. Dept. of Education College Scorecard), not a subjective prestige score; a major with no school reporting earnings data yet is listed alphabetically instead (see the note below that section).
College rankings

Top schools for Computer Science

Every school nationally tracked, sorted by national ranking for this degree. Each school's tuition is color-coded by how much of median income it represents.

Your state of residence
Used to calculate in-state vs. out-of-state tuition. Income comparison uses the typical pay for the degree, occupation, and state selected above.
%
Cheaper Pricier
White (100%) marks a common guideline: total borrowing shouldn't exceed about a year of typical pay in the field. Type a value above, or drag the slider: its track and thumb are colored to match where you land on the same cheaper-to-pricier scale.
Common questions

What Does Your Degree Pay? By State: questions people ask

What does a degree in my major actually pay?

The page shows Bureau of Labor Statistics wages for the occupations the major commonly leads to, by state and at several percentiles from entry level to experienced, and can adjust them for local cost of living.

Which schools offer the best value for a major?

The school list for each major uses College Scorecard data: the cost of attending and, where reported, graduates' early-career earnings for that program. Schools that do not report earnings are still listed but not ranked.

Is a degree worth it?

On average the earnings gap is large, but it varies widely by field and assumes you finish. Is a degree actually worth it? works through the numbers and the risks.

Keep reading
Salaries by Job
What common jobs pay, in every state.
Is a Degree Worth It? What the Numbers Say
The earnings gap, the completion risk, and pricing one degree.
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Limits, rates, when interest starts, and the 2026 repayment split.