Social sciences

Social Sciences, Other

Carnegie Mellon University · Pittsburgh, PA

Medium evidenceMatched peers12 institutions · related subjectsSee the evidence

The degree in numbers

Cost & earnings.

Annual tuition$63,829Institution-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$60,308
Same subject · national$43,583
Social sciences · national$47,260

Behind the number

Your comparison group.

Medium evidence

Related subjects at 12 matched peer institutions · master's

Grouped estimate. Middle half of comparison values: $53,524–$66,654.

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
Tufts UniversityInternational Relations and National Security Studies, Urban Studies/Affairs$58,587
Georgetown UniversityInternational Relations and National Security Studies, Political Science and Government$64,014
Middlebury CollegeInternational Relations and National Security Studies$60,523
Boston UniversityInternational Relations and National Security Studies, Social Sciences, General$53,579
University of Southern CaliforniaGeography and Cartography$60,094
Johns Hopkins UniversityInternational Relations and National Security Studies, Political Science and Government$78,504
University of PennsylvaniaCriminology$53,358
University of ChicagoInternational Relations and National Security Studies, Social Sciences, General$43,237
Yale UniversityInternational Relations and National Security Studies$74,576
Lehigh UniversityPolitical Science and Government$30,409
Stanford UniversityInternational Relations and National Security Studies$78,114
Columbia University in the City of New YorkInternational Relations and National Security Studies, Social Sciences, Other$62,822
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 ↗