Database Compares Earnings for 32,578 College Programs
A New York Times interactive tool ranks graduate salaries by major and university using federal earnings data for students who graduated in 2017-19.
Updated on Nov. 2, 2026 in Financial Aid
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The New York Times published an interactive database on October 7 comparing average earnings for 32,578 undergraduate programs at 24,526 U.S. universities. The tool draws on an analysis by the HEA Group using Department of Education data for students who received federal financial aid and graduated in 2017-19.
Why it matters
The database lets prospective students and families compare the typical earnings a degree produces by major and school, a question that is often hard to answer before enrolling. It also flags each program's risk status for federal aid eligibility, which bears directly on how students finance their education.
The database covers 32,578 undergraduate programs at 24,526 universities, with WashU finance graduates showing an average earnings premium of $105,132 over same-major peers elsewhere. The analysis does not, based on the extraction, explain how much of that gap reflects the program itself versus the students admitted to it.
The players
The New York Times
The New York Times is a major American newspaper that published the interactive database comparing program earnings across U.S. universities.
HEA Group
The HEA Group is a higher education research firm whose analysis of Department of Education data underlies the database.
The details
Users can compare average graduate salaries for a given major across schools or view every major at a single university. The HEA Group analysis measures average earnings four years after graduation for bachelor degree holders who received federal aid.
Timeline
- Students in the dataset graduated between 2017 and 2019.
- The New York Times published the interactive database on October 7, 2025.
Season Trajectory
The database turns federal Department of Education earnings records into a program-by-program comparison that prospective students can search directly. It builds on the federal aid earnings data that the HEA Group analyzed, placing a consumer-facing layer over a dataset that previously required specialist analysis.
Families comparing schools can use the database to see typical earnings by major before committing to tuition costs. Checking a program's federal aid eligibility status can also help when weighing borrowing options against expected graduate salaries.
The takeaway
Earnings by major vary widely across universities, so comparing specific programs can reveal more than overall school rankings. Reviewing a program's graduate salary data alongside its cost can help frame a decision about how much debt is reasonable.
Further reading
Explore more on Financial Aid to see how earnings data connects to paying for college.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Student Life.
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