Social sciences

Social Sciences, General

Amherst College · Amherst, MA

Medium evidenceMatched peers12 institutions · related subjectsSee the evidence

The degree in numbers

Cost & earnings.

Annual tuition$67,280Institution-level tuition; programme fees may differ · before aid
Grouped debt estimate$16,057Related subjects at 12 matched peer institutions · bachelor's
Annual credentials awarded1Average of available recent award years; not the earnings sample size.

Earnings context

One career stage.
A clearer comparison.

USD · Bachelor's · 2 years after completion
Same source release. National references exclude this degree.

Selected degree estimate$41,020
Same subject · national$33,565
Social sciences · national$32,389

Behind the number

Your comparison group.

Medium evidence

Related subjects at 12 matched peer institutions · bachelor's

Grouped estimate. Middle half of comparison values: $38,763–$48,602.

Historical earnings archive. College Scorecard legacy FOS archive (file dated 2022-01-19; cohorts vary). Do not interpret this as today's graduate salary. Further study and career changes are not modelled by this early-career figure.

Bachelor's outcomes · 2 years after completion
Institution & subjectReported earnings
Williams CollegePolitical Science and Government, Social Sciences, Other$59,850
Middlebury CollegeGeography and Cartography, International Relations and National Security Studies, Political Science and Government, Sociology$41,016
Tufts UniversityInternational Relations and National Security Studies, Political Science and Government, Sociology$48,139
Claremont McKenna CollegePolitical Science and Government$41,025
Hamilton CollegeInternational Relations and National Security Studies, Political Science and Government$49,990
Bowdoin CollegePolitical Science and Government, Sociology$40,501
Wellesley CollegeAnthropology, Political Science and Government$27,503
Barnard CollegeAnthropology, Political Science and Government, Sociology$47,846
Bates CollegePolitical Science and Government, Sociology$36,944
Swarthmore CollegePolitical Science and Government$39,369
Colgate UniversityInternational Relations and National Security Studies, Political Science and Government, Sociology and Anthropology$53,358
Grinnell CollegeAnthropology, Political Science and Government, Sociology$33,993
How matching & uncertainty work

We first look for the same subject code (or exact subject name), qualification, country, currency, source release and earnings horizon. Peer institutions are matched using admissions selectivity, completion rates, undergraduate size and institution type, with a small preference for the same region. These are institutional proxies, not a ranking of programme quality.

If subject-matched peers are sparse, we try related subjects at closely matched universities, related degrees at this university, then an explicitly labelled national reference. We never multiply a salary by a university prestige score.

Peer and national estimates give each reporting institution one vote, after taking the median of its related programmes. Shared branch-campus outcomes count once. The middle-half range describes variation between reporting institutions. It is not an individual salary range or a statistical confidence interval.

Evidence labels describe match quality and coverage, not validated prediction accuracy. Admissions and size are undergraduate institutional measures, so graduate-degree comparisons are especially approximate.

Historical cohort outcomes are not promised salaries or a causal effect of attending this programme. College Scorecard earnings cover eligible federal-aid recipients, not every graduate or international student. Source definitions ↗