Which US Master's Actually Pays Back
A US master's costs Indian families ₹40–60 lakh. The Department of Education publishes what each field earns one year after graduation and what its graduates owe. The gap between the best and worst field is more than three to one.
In this guide (6 sections)
Every year thousands of Indian families fund a US master's on the assumption that it pays for itself. The US Department of Education publishes the numbers to check that — earnings one year after graduation, and the debt graduates carry — for every programme at every institution.
We took the current College Scorecard field-of-study file and pulled every master's programme with usable figures: 10,322 programmes across every major field.
Payback by field
The ratio is median first-year earnings divided by median federal graduate-loan debt. Above 2.0 means a graduate out-earns the whole borrowed amount twice over within a year.
| Field | Programmes | Median earnings (1 year out) | Median debt | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Engineering | 131 | $104,018 | $31,167 | 3.34 |
| Computer & Information Sciences | 236 | $98,320 | $39,296 | 2.50 |
| Business & Management | 1,351 | $78,282 | $34,643 | 2.26 |
| Education | 1,452 | $58,532 | $29,730 | 1.97 |
| Natural Resources | 40 | $63,490 | $34,365 | 1.85 |
| Social Sciences | 88 | $68,612 | $37,452 | 1.83 |
| Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies | 93 | $69,486 | $40,519 | 1.71 |
| Legal Professions | 58 | $82,084 | $50,394 | 1.63 |
| Communication & Journalism | 102 | $59,914 | $38,826 | 1.54 |
| Public Administration & Social Service | 498 | $59,432 | $40,318 | 1.47 |
| Health Professions | 1,737 | $70,550 | $49,262 | 1.43 |
| Biological & Biomedical Sciences | 137 | $54,966 | $41,000 | 1.34 |
| Psychology | 328 | $55,646 | $44,432 | 1.25 |
| English Language & Literature | 50 | $47,445 | $41,000 | 1.16 |
| Visual & Performing Arts | 126 | $40,612 | $41,000 | 0.99 |
Engineering and Computer Science sit at the top, which is the outcome most Indian applicants are already betting on. What the data adds is the size of the gap: Engineering returns 3.34x against Visual and Performing Arts at 0.99x, where the median graduate owes slightly more than they earn in their first full year.
Health Professions is the one to look at twice. Earnings are respectable at $70,550, but debt is the highest of any field at $49,262, which drops the ratio to 1.43 — below Education, which earns far less.
The highest-earning Computer Science master's programmes
| Institution | Programme | Earnings 1yr out | Median debt |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stanford University | Computer Science | $190,776 | $33,500 |
| Columbia University | Computer Science | $180,031 | $41,000 |
| University of Chicago | Computer Science | $176,945 | $69,006 |
| Cornell University | Computer Science | $175,401 | $36,706 |
| UCLA | Computer & Information Sciences | $170,827 | — |
| UT Austin | Computer & Information Sciences | $169,498 | $30,750 |
| Georgia Institute of Technology | Computer & Information Sciences | $166,436 | $21,664 |
| Cornell University | Computer/IT Administration | $161,226 | $93,791 |
| UC San Diego | Computer Science | $160,898 | $42,970 |
| University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | Computer Science | $157,956 | $22,875 |
Median across all 390 CS master's programmes with data: $98,320. The 90th percentile is $131,773 — so the names above are well clear of the field.
The highest-earning Engineering master's programmes
| Institution | Programme | Earnings 1yr out | Median debt |
|---|---|---|---|
| Harvard University | Engineering Science | $188,056 | — |
| Northwestern University | Engineering, Other | $176,926 | $115,500 |
| University of Michigan–Ann Arbor | Computer Engineering | $174,031 | $20,500 |
| MIT | Electrical & Electronics | $173,300 | — |
| Stanford University | Electrical & Electronics | $170,593 | $41,000 |
| MIT | Mechanical Engineering | $170,342 | — |
| UC Berkeley | Electrical & Electronics | $162,352 | — |
| Carnegie Mellon University | Electrical & Electronics | $157,567 | $57,062 |
| UC San Diego | Computer Engineering | $157,175 | — |
| UCLA | Electrical & Electronics | $145,687 | $23,666 |
Median across all 488 Engineering master's programmes: $98,923.
Earnings alone will mislead you
Compare two rows in the CS table.
Cornell's Computer/IT Administration programme: $161,226 earnings on $93,791 debt — a ratio of 1.7.
Nearly identical earnings. Four and a half times the debt. A ranking built on salary alone puts these two side by side; the cost column separates them completely. Michigan's Computer Engineering master's is the same story at $174,031 against $20,500, and Illinois at $157,956 against $22,875.
The pattern is that several public universities deliver private-university earnings at a fraction of the cost — which is exactly the comparison a ranking table will not show you.
What happens after the degree
These are first-year figures. The H-1B filings we parse separately show where that curve goes: the median certified wage for Software Developers is $144,936, and for Electronics Engineers $156,853. See H-1B salary data by role and city and what the non-software occupations pay.
If you are weighing where to study, the cost-of-living adjusted salary table matters as much as the programme, and cap-exempt employers are worth understanding before you arrive rather than after.
What this data cannot tell you
The Department of Education suppresses figures for small cohorts to protect privacy, so most programmes have no published numbers at all — 10,322 of 38,199 master's programmes had usable earnings. Small or new programmes are systematically missing, and a field's figure is the median of the programmes that do report.
Earnings are measured one year after completion, from tax records of graduates working in the US. That favours fields where people start work immediately and understates ones where graduates continue to a doctorate, which depresses the Biological Sciences and Physical Sciences rows in particular.
A programme's median is not your outcome. It reflects the cohort, the city they work in and the year they graduated into.
Questions
Which US master's degree has the best return?
Which fields do not pay back?
Which US university gives the highest-paying CS master's?
Does this debt data apply to Indian students?
Where does this data come from?
Sources: US Department of Education — College Scorecard Data · US Department of Education — College Scorecard Data Documentation · US Department of Labor — Foreign Labor Certification Performance Data (LCA disclosure files)
