Biology & life sciences

Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology

Carnegie Mellon University · Pittsburgh, PA

Medium evidenceMatched peers9 institutions · related subjectsSee the evidence

The degree in numbers

Cost & earnings.

Annual tuition$63,829Institution-level tuition; programme fees may differ · before aid
Annual credentials awarded1Average of available recent award years; not the earnings sample size.

Earnings context

One career stage.
A clearer comparison.

USD · Doctoral · 2 years after completion
Same source release. National references exclude this degree.

Selected degree estimate$60,771
Biology & life sciences · national$57,318

Behind the number

Your comparison group.

Medium evidence

Related subjects at 9 matched peer institutions · doctoral

Grouped estimate. Middle half of comparison values: $53,358–$63,166.

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.

Doctoral outcomes · 2 years after completion
Institution & subjectReported earnings
Emory UniversityBiology, General$60,771
University of Notre DameBiology, General$56,415
Tulane University of LouisianaCell/Cellular Biology and Anatomical Sciences$51,273
Johns Hopkins UniversityBiochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology, Biology, General, Cell/Cellular Biology and Anatomical Sciences$63,166
Vanderbilt UniversityPhysiology, Pathology and Related Sciences$50,856
Northwestern UniversityCell/Cellular Biology and Anatomical Sciences$71,015
University of PennsylvaniaCell/Cellular Biology and Anatomical Sciences$53,358
Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyBiology, General$61,516
Harvard UniversityBiology, General, Ecology, Evolution, Systematics, and Population Biology, Neurobiology and Neurosciences$73,446
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 ↗