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Program ranking · CIP 40.05 bachelor's · College Scorecard · Mar-Jul 2026 retrievals

Best Colleges for Chemistry

Using U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard field-of-study data retrieved March-July 2026, these colleges rank highest on median earnings for Chemistry (CIP 40.05) bachelor's completers. Rankings use earnings only - not prestige, selectivity, or editorial judgment - and require at least 25 completers so tiny suppressed cohorts do not dominate the list.

$93,122
Highest chemistry earnings
100
Colleges ranked
$56,784
#100 cutoff

The list in one line

Every college on this list reports at least $56,784 median earnings for Chemistry bachelor's (CIP 40.05) completers. College of the Holy Cross leads at $93,122.

According to the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard.

$93,122
#1 - College of the
$56,784
#100 - the cutoff to make this list
25+
completers required per school
1,158
US schools offering this CIP

Earnings are field-of-study medians for federally aided completers who were working and not enrolled; see methodology for horizon and lag details.

Top 15 chemistry programs by median completer earnings

Chemistry bachelor's (CIP 40.05) · higher is higher early-career pay

median earnings

What this shows Chemistry medians mix lab, industry, and graduate-school pipelines - compare debt and completer counts before treating pay as program quality.

Source U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard Field of Study As of Mar-Jul 2026 retrievals

The full top 100

# School Name StateMedian EarningsMedian DebtCompleters
1 College of the Holy Cross MA $93,122 $27,000 32
2 The College of New Jersey NJ $90,396 $25,611 27
3 New York University NY $86,197 $24,125 29
4 University of Connecticut CT $84,609 $25,818 37
5 University of California-Berkeley CA $82,386 $11,077 126
6 University of Oregon OR $81,984 - 26
7 Bridgewater State University MA $80,287 $27,000 25
8 California State University-Northridge CA $79,878 - 26
9 University of Maryland-College Park MD $79,869 $16,738 42
10 The University of Tennessee-Knoxville TN $79,736 $16,962 39
11 Rowan University NJ $79,695 $25,000 25
12 Cornell University NY $79,311 $15,121 43
13 Emory University GA $79,034 $19,625 104
14 Boise State University ID $78,901 $25,000 39
15 Oregon State University OR $78,417 $23,916 48
16 University of Massachusetts-Amherst MA $78,373 - 29
17 William & Mary VA $78,270 $18,033 52
18 George Mason University VA $77,681 $20,504 40
19 University of California-San Diego CA $77,249 $16,050 346
20 North Carolina State University at Raleigh NC $76,978 $16,500 37
21 Towson University MD $76,296 $21,187 54
22 University of California-Irvine CA $74,810 $13,000 112
23 University of California-Santa Barbara CA $74,713 $15,805 103
24 San Diego State University CA $74,676 $17,999 114
25 James Madison University VA $74,631 $23,750 44
26 California State University-Sacramento CA $74,430 $26,263 38
27 University of Kentucky KY $73,549 $22,000 35
28 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University VA $73,395 $22,875 33
29 University of California-Davis CA $73,365 $13,000 70
30 Rutgers University-New Brunswick NJ $73,245 $19,250 40
31 University of Cincinnati-Main Campus OH $72,302 $19,500 51
32 University of California-Los Angeles CA $72,220 $11,000 58
33 The University of Texas at Austin TX $72,025 $17,794 114
34 Stony Brook University NY $71,783 $21,490 55
35 University of Minnesota-Twin Cities MN $71,620 $19,500 68
36 Colorado State University-Fort Collins CO $71,615 $16,500 31
37 Ohio State University-Main Campus OH $71,559 $24,500 52
38 East Carolina University NC $71,445 $22,000 65
39 University of California-Santa Cruz CA $71,348 $15,000 54
40 University of Utah UT $71,276 $15,921 65
41 California State Polytechnic University-Pomona CA $70,741 $23,333 76
42 Texas Tech University TX $70,673 $27,487 25
43 University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus PA $70,206 $27,000 57
44 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign IL $70,197 $21,250 114
45 University at Albany NY $70,124 $21,250 36
46 Texas A&M University-College Station TX $69,662 $18,488 57
47 University of Houston TX $68,504 $12,500 31
48 University at Buffalo NY $68,413 $22,783 44
49 University of Virginia-Main Campus VA $68,174 $19,000 103
50 Syracuse University NY $68,017 $21,459 26
51 Clemson University SC $67,996 $27,000 47
52 California State University-Long Beach CA $67,818 $12,430 39
53 Purdue University-Main Campus IN $67,680 $19,500 72
54 Virginia Commonwealth University VA $67,439 $20,500 100
55 Monmouth University NJ $66,895 $27,000 25
56 Florida State University FL $66,724 $21,406 27
57 University of Arizona AZ $66,532 $24,219 29
58 University of Minnesota-Duluth MN $66,529 $21,242 36
59 Iowa State University IA $66,486 $20,199 32
60 Michigan State University MI $65,983 $26,750 48
61 University of North Carolina Wilmington NC $65,982 $16,400 43
62 Kent State University at Kent OH $65,810 $24,892 36
63 Georgia Southern University GA $65,629 $23,000 34
64 Northern Illinois University IL $65,611 $22,750 30
65 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor MI $65,591 $21,500 25
66 University of Northern Colorado CO $65,414 $26,000 29
67 Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus PA $65,230 $27,000 30
68 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill NC $64,981 $14,000 139
69 California State University-Fullerton CA $64,857 $17,377 28
70 University of Wisconsin-Madison WI $64,734 $22,250 66
71 University of Washington-Seattle Campus WA $64,676 $15,081 77
72 University of California-Riverside CA $64,131 $21,500 53
73 California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo CA $63,882 $15,259 26
74 Kalamazoo College MI $63,824 $27,000 32
75 California State University-San Bernardino CA $63,496 $16,276 27
76 The University of Texas at Dallas TX $63,472 $20,532 33
77 Wayne State University MI $63,079 $21,054 50
78 Indiana University-Indianapolis IN $61,687 $20,743 56
79 University of North Texas TX $61,473 $23,250 38
80 Indiana University-Bloomington IN $61,024 $17,000 45
81 University of North Carolina at Charlotte NC $60,978 $21,500 29
82 University of Missouri-Kansas City MO $60,950 $20,803 76
83 Northern Arizona University AZ $60,630 $20,051 54
84 CUNY Lehman College NY $60,413 - 40
85 University of Alabama at Birmingham AL $60,318 $26,000 52
86 University of Iowa IA $60,227 $25,650 34
87 Bowling Green State University-Main Campus OH $60,065 $24,250 43
88 University of South Florida FL $59,942 $16,750 70
89 California State University-Channel Islands CA $58,498 $21,250 25
90 University of South Carolina-Columbia SC $58,462 $23,263 25
91 Appalachian State University NC $58,329 $23,894 49
92 Arizona State University Campus Immersion AZ $58,247 $21,375 101
93 Florida International University FL $57,788 $13,240 83
94 Sam Houston State University TX $57,410 $23,874 35
95 University of Central Florida FL $57,313 $16,050 50
96 The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley TX $57,100 $10,837 42
97 Tennessee Technological University TN $57,088 $19,100 32
98 Missouri State University-Springfield MO $56,984 $20,517 33
99 University of California-Merced CA $56,888 $14,500 40
100 Kennesaw State University GA $56,784 $19,901 38

About This Ranking

Schools are ranked by College Scorecard field-of-study median earnings for Chemistry (CIP 40.05) bachelor's completers. Only operating schools with at least 25 completers and a published median are included. Ties break toward larger completer cohorts. For the full program profile - including every reporting school and national distribution - see Chemistry (bachelor's). Methodology lives on our methodology page.

Caveats and limitations

"Best" here means highest reported median earnings for the stated CIP scope - not teaching quality, licensure pass rates, clinical placement strength, or fit for any one student. This list covers Chemistry (CIP 40.05) bachelor's programs - biochemistry (CIP 26.02) and chemical engineering (CIP 14.07) are ranked on their own pages when demand warrants.

Figures cover federally aided completers only, use Treasury-linked earnings, and describe a lagged cohort. Regional pay scales and graduate-school paths both move the median without proving a causal school effect.

This ranking is for informational purposes only and does not constitute academic or career advice. Earnings do not predict any individual graduate's outcome.

Every figure on PlainCollege is rendered directly from the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard data, no number is typed in by an editor. Rankings are computed directly from College Scorecard field-of-study data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error on this page. Review the public data changelog. Data current as of Mar-Jul 2026 retrievals.