Biology & life sciences

Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology

California State University-Los Angeles · Los Angeles, CA

Medium evidenceMatched peers12 institutions · related subjectsSee the evidence

The degree in numbers

Cost & earnings.

Annual tuition$18,698Institution-level tuition; programme fees may differ · before aid

Earnings context

One career stage.
A clearer comparison.

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

Selected degree estimate$46,815
Same subject · national$38,289
Biology & life sciences · national$44,170

Behind the number

Your comparison group.

Medium evidence

Related subjects at 12 matched peer institutions · master's

Grouped estimate. Middle half of comparison values: $38,289–$53,882.

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.

Master's outcomes · 2 years after completion
Institution & subjectReported earnings
Northern Arizona UniversityBiology, General$38,289
California State University-SacramentoBiology, General$54,435
Georgia Southern UniversityBiology, General$38,289
The University of Texas at San AntonioBiology, General$42,774
Texas State UniversityBiology, General, Ecology, Evolution, Systematics, and Population Biology$37,752
Texas A & M University-CommerceBiology, General$50,856
Southern Illinois University-CarbondaleZoology/Animal Biology$50,856
San Francisco State UniversityBiology, General$76,460
Colorado State University-Fort CollinsEcology, Evolution, Systematics, and Population Biology, Microbiological Sciences and Immunology, Zoology/Animal Biology$41,087
University of ToledoBiology, General$56,563
The University of Texas Rio Grande ValleyBiology, General$53,697
Montclair State UniversityBiology, General$29,685
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 ↗