Physical sciences

Chemistry

Washington and Lee University · Lexington, VA

Medium evidenceMatched peers11 institutions · same subjectSee the evidence

The degree in numbers

Cost & earnings.

Annual tuition$64,525Institution-level tuition; programme fees may differ · before aid
Grouped debt estimate$20,532Same subject at 11 matched peer institutions · bachelor's
Annual credentials awarded9Average 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$36,848
Same subject · national$38,289
Physical sciences · national$38,289

Behind the number

Your comparison group.

Medium evidence

Same subject at 11 matched peer institutions · bachelor's

Grouped estimate. Middle half of comparison values: $28,450–$43,928.

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
Smith CollegeChemistry$42,682
Carleton CollegeChemistry$36,141
College of the Holy CrossChemistry$45,175
Hamilton CollegeChemistry$51,273
Wake Forest UniversityChemistry$41,025
Williams CollegeChemistry$25,525
Macalester CollegeChemistry$29,685
Skidmore CollegeChemistry$36,848
Carnegie Mellon UniversityChemistry$57,318
Emory UniversityChemistry$21,052
Duke UniversityChemistry$27,216
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 ↗