Compiled by PlainCollege, College outcomes data analysis
64
Schools
Doctoral
Credential Level
$65,136
National Avg Earnings
What the IPEDS & College Scorecard Data Shows for Religion/Religious Studies
Religion/Religious Studies is tracked across 64 U.S. postsecondary institutions in the College Scorecard field-of-study file, which links CIP code classifications from IPEDS to Treasury earnings records. This profile covers the doctoral credential level specifically, because the Department of Education reports program-level outcomes separately for associate, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral awards. The CIP (Classification of Instructional Programs) taxonomy lets analysts roll up specialties into broader families, which is why earnings medians across schools can be compared on a common basis.
Across all reporting institutions, the mean of school-level medians is $65,136, calculated from 2 schools with published earnings data. The top-reporting institution in this program is Emory University at $76,175. These numbers reflect Treasury-derived wages, deferred compensation, and positive self-employment earnings four years after completion for federally aided completers who were working and not enrolled.
Variation across schools matters more than a single national figure. Completer counts and earnings cohort counts are distinct source fields, so the displayed completer count should not be assumed to be the earnings denominator. PlainCollege's debt-to-earnings ratio divides median federal debt by annual median earnings as a descriptive comparison; it is not the Department's formal gainful-employment test. Use the school-by-school table to compare reported outcomes while accounting for cohort size, suppression, program mix, and location.
Emory University accounts for 31.9% of all Religion/Religious Studies doctoral credential graduates
That is an overwhelming concentration — well above the 5% national median for largest-entity share, leaving the rest of Religion/Religious Studies a distant remainder. That school produced 15 graduates in the most recent cohort, anchoring a meaningful slice of national supply for this field. Emory University's programmatic and budget decisions functionally set policy for the affected population, since no other entity here comes close to matching its weight.
Religion/Religious Studies debt-to-earnings ratio is 3.50 — well above typical (typically associated with unusually large scale or acute resource constraints)
debt-to-earnings ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: this ratio uses federal loan principal, not all education debt, private loans, parent PLUS loans not in the borrower’s name, and institutional debt are excluded Values this far above typical often signal acute resource constraints or a structurally different scale than most peers — worth reading alongside the underlying counts, not the ratio alone.
Awards and earnings come from different reference periods, so they are not a count and an
average of the same people. Awards is the number of credentials the school reported for the
latest IPEDS year; median earnings is measured four years after completion, for a separate
pooled cohort of earlier graduates. A school can therefore report zero awards in the latest
year and still have earnings on record. The earnings figure is not the awards figure’s
average, and the awards count is not the earnings sample size. Schools are ranked on the
four-year earnings figure only, so every row is compared on the same basis.
Compare beyond the CIP family
Nationwide peers by school count & four-year earnings
Cross-field programs at the same credential level nearest Religion/Religious Studies on school-count breadth
(64 schools) and mean four-year median earnings ($65,136).
Peers exclude the same two-digit CIP family so neighborhoods are not CIP-containment siblings.
School-count peers include Communication Disorders Sciences and Services, Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Administration, Music. Earnings peers include Rehabilitation and Therapeutic Professions, Curriculum and Instruction, Psychology, General.
Neighborhoods are forced disjoint so each axis surfaces a different set of programs.
Similar school count
Nearest programs (≥50 schools) by absolute school-count breadth, outside this CIP family.
How much do Religion/Religious Studies graduates earn? ▼
Religion/Religious Studies graduates earn $65,136 on average four years after completion, across the 2 of 64 schools that report earnings for this program.
Which school's Religion/Religious Studies graduates earn the most? ▼
Emory University has the highest reported median earnings for Religion/Religious Studies graduates at $76,175, measured four years after completion in College Scorecard data. This reflects what graduates went on to earn, which depends heavily on who the school admits and which employers recruit there. It is not a figure the school pays.
What credential do you get in Religion/Religious Studies? ▼
Religion/Religious Studies programs typically award a Doctoral credential. Earnings vary by school and credential level.
Top Schools for Religion/Religious Studies
Closest schools offering this program – compare earnings side by side
Earnings data comes from the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard Field of Study file retrieved in March 2026. The program metric displayed here represents federally aided completers who were working and not enrolled four years after credential completion, using Treasury-derived records published through the Scorecard. Completer counts and debt figures come from the same field-of-study snapshot; the Department refreshes components on schedules documented in its changelog, not one fixed annual date.