$88,490 on $23,250 borrowed. In this field the credential decides it, not the school.

What graduates actually earn, four years out

Tech and development graduates report a median of $80,281 four years after completing. That is the median across the 1,872 programs in the field that report an earnings figure to the College Scorecard. The field itself is far larger: 8,552 programs at 2,660 institutions, awarding roughly 80,682 credentials a year. Only 22% of those programs report earnings at all, because the federal files suppress figures drawn from too few aided completers. Every number below rests on that reporting fifth of the field.

The national median across all fields of study, measured at the same point after completing, is $62,283 for comparison. Tech is the best-paid of the six creative fields this site covers, and the distance is not marginal. Audio and music production graduates report a median of $43,716 four years out. The same measure returns $46,553 for film and video, $48,144 for game design and $48,893 for design and digital art. Marketing and business, the next best paid field, reports $66,349 at the median. The spread between the top field and the bottom is $36,565 in annual earnings.

That is the headline, and it holds up. What follows is the part that decides whether it applies to any particular program.

What they borrowed to get there

Median debt at completion for a tech program is $22,780, measured across the 1,420 programs that report a debt figure. That is the lowest of the six fields, but only just: audio and music production sits at $25,496 in median debt, design and digital art at $25,048 and game design at $26,000 in borrowing. Debt is not what separates tech from the other fields. Earnings are.

Price is a different story. Median published in-state tuition for a tech program is $14,624 a year, against $27,992 for design and digital art, $27,530 for game design, $26,684 for film and video and $24,295 for audio and music production. The reason is structural: nearly 5,000 of the 8,552 tech programs are undergraduate certificates or associate degrees, where median in-state tuition runs $4,224 and $4,386 a year. Those programs pull the field's tuition median down and cost far less to enter.

Set the debt against the earnings and the field's ratio is 28% — median debt at completion as a share of median earnings four years out. Audio and music production runs at 58%, game design 54%, design and digital art 51%, film and video 50%. Marketing and business, the closest competitor, is 36%. Full tuition and borrowing detail by credential is on the tech and development cost page.

Bachelor's vs associate vs certificate: the credential gap

The credential level moves the numbers more than anything else in this data, including the name of the school.

Undergraduate certificates account for 2,472 programs. They report median earnings of $54,917 four years after completing on median debt of $9,500 at completion, a ratio of 17% — the strongest ratio at any credential level in the field. Only 156 certificate programs report earnings, so that median is thinly evidenced and should be read as a signal rather than a settled figure.

Associate degrees account for 2,520 programs and report $56,083 in median earnings on $17,589 in median debt, a 31% ratio, from 446 reporting programs. The earnings sit close to the certificate median on materially more borrowed money.

Bachelor's degrees account for 2,487 programs and report $88,490 in median earnings on $23,250 in median debt, a 26% ratio, from 1,047 reporting programs. That is the best-evidenced cell in the field, and it is what most people mean when they ask about a computer science degree.

Master's degrees account for 1,073 programs and report $127,221 in median earnings on $38,939 in median debt, a 31% ratio, from 223 reporting programs. Higher pay, higher borrowing, and the same ratio as an associate degree.

Where the median is misleading: the spread between programs

At the top of the distribution the figures are extreme. The University of Pennsylvania's bachelor's in Computer and Information Sciences, General reports $241,380 four years after completing, on median debt of $15,000 at completion — a ratio of 6%. Massachusetts Institute of Technology reports $225,141 in Computer Science on debt of $11,077, a ratio of 5%. Stanford University reports $214,907 on debt of $10,399 at completion. Brown University reports $214,479 and Williams College $209,574 on debt in the same range, and Johns Hopkins University reports $196,467 on $12,750 in debt. These are highly selective private institutions with large aid budgets. The figures reflect who was admitted as much as what was taught, and no reader should treat them as an achievable outcome by choosing a subject.

At the bottom of the distribution the same subject produces the opposite result. Fayetteville State University's bachelor's in Computer Science reports $36,164 four years after completing against median debt of $24,248, a ratio of 67%. NUC University's fully online bachelor's in Computer Systems Networking and Telecommunications reports $34,804 on $23,027 in debt, a ratio of 66%. Fort Valley State University's bachelor's in Computer and Information Sciences, General reports $44,881 on $33,630 in debt, a ratio of 75%. Laurus College's associate in Computer Support Specialist reports $45,838 on $32,416, a ratio of 71%.

The worst ratio in the field belongs to a graduate credential. Strayer University-Virginia and Strayer University-Global Region both report a master's in Computer Support Specialist earning $96,961 four years after completing on median debt of $75,331 at completion, a ratio of 78%. Those earnings clear the field median comfortably. The borrowing is what breaks the trade. You can compare programs directly or start from the best-value ranking.

The degree-vs-bootcamp question, answered with the data we have and the data we don't

Say the limit plainly once. The federal files cover programs at institutions that participate in student aid, so a non-accredited bootcamp reports nothing here — no earnings, no debt, no completion count. The same files cannot isolate freelance and contract income, and they cannot see anyone who enrolled and did not finish. Every earnings figure on this site is a median for people who completed. That is the boundary of the evidence, and it is not an excuse for avoiding the comparison.

What the data does support is a measured analogue. The closest thing to a short vocational program in these files is the undergraduate certificate, at $54,917 in median earnings on $9,500 of median debt. That is a genuine return on a small amount of borrowing, from 156 reporting programs, and it sits well below the bachelor's median of $88,490 four years out. If flexibility is the argument for a bootcamp, note that 1,174 tech programs list an online option — 14% of the field — while 63% remain campus-only.

Who this degree is worth it for, and who should think twice

On this evidence, the case is strongest for a bachelor's degree taken at an in-state price. Median earnings of $88,490 four years after completing, against median debt of $23,250 at completion, is a 26% ratio backed by more reporting programs than any other cell in the field. If tuition lands near the field median of $14,624 a year and borrowing lands near the median, the arithmetic works at most institutions, and it works across the large program groups — Information Technology at 1,787 programs, Computing, General at 1,492, Computer Science at 1,315, Cybersecurity & Information Assurance at 1,276 and Networking & Cloud at 1,254.

Think twice in three situations. Ratios of 66%, 71%, 75% and 78% all appear in this field, at public and for-profit institutions alike, so a high-priced program is not made safe by the subject. A master's in a support-specialist area produced the worst ratio in the data even though the master's median of $127,221 is real. And an associate degree at 31% earns close to a certificate at 17%, so the middle of the credential ladder deserves the hardest look. The general framework is in is it worth it.

These figures are medians for a field. Your decision concerns one program at one institution, with one price. Start from the tech and development hub, check the cost and reported earnings for the specific programs on your list, and then ask a school about a program. We publish this data independently, no school pays to appear, and we take no placement fees.