Biology & life sciences

Biology, General

James Madison University · Harrisonburg, VA

Medium evidenceMatched peers10 institutions · same subjectSee the evidence

The degree in numbers

Cost & earnings.

Annual tuition$30,790Institution-level tuition; programme fees may differ · before aid
Annual credentials awarded9Average of available recent award years; not the earnings sample size.

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$41,490
Same subject · national$38,289
Biology & life sciences · national$44,170

Behind the number

Your comparison group.

Medium evidence

Same subject at 10 matched peer institutions · master's

Grouped estimate. Middle half of comparison values: $36,134–$51,794.

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
Miami University-OxfordBiology, General$43,054
University of Wisconsin-La CrosseBiology, General$171,020
Rutgers University-New BrunswickBiology, General · shared campus reporting$35,416
Texas A & M University-College StationBiology, General$27,343
University of Massachusetts-LowellBiology, General$52,107
Appalachian State UniversityBiology, General$38,289
Iowa State UniversityBiology, General$25,194
George Mason UniversityBiology, General$50,856
California State University-FullertonBiology, General$39,927
Stony Brook UniversityBiology, General$58,673
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 ↗