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Infographics: the college money picture, one page at a time

Every infographic is built from federal data: Bureau of Labor Statistics wages, College Scorecard costs and borrowing, New York Fed outcomes. Free to use anywhere, no permission needed. Click any one for the full-size version.

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17 infographics
Two years at a California community college and two at a public university, against four years at the university. At a UC that is about $81,900 against $158,600. At a CSU it is about $45,900 against $86,600. Tuition and housing on both sides, at resident prices. Transferring to a UC saves about $76,700 The same diploma, from the same university, at about half the price. Most of the saving is rent rather than tuition.

IPEDS 2023 tuition and fees, in-district at public two-year colleges and in-state by university system, with cost of attendance from the College Scorecard release of June 2026 (data year 2024), median per system. Every price is what a California resident pays

 
The two credentials a California community college awards, side by side and to the same scale. Two years and about $2,576 for an associate's degree, against one year and about $1,288 for a certificate, measured by total pay over the first ten years of work. What the extra year of California community college buys Eight of the two-year careers out-earn the median bachelor's-level one. Two of the one-year careers do. The extra year is doing real work.

BLS OEWS California state medians (May 2025) and the BLS Employment Projections occupation matrix, priced with IPEDS 2023 tuition and fees: in-district at public two-year colleges, in-state by university system. Both panels share one horizontal scale, so the bars are comparable across the pair

 
Careers BLS says need an associate's degree, at California wages, by total pay over ten years. Two years in-district is about $2,576 against about $30,408 for four years of in-state tuition at a CSU campus, or $58,240 at a UC campus. Tuition and fees on both sides. Two years of California community college costs $2,576 Eight two-year careers out-earn the median bachelor's-level one in California. Most are health technology, and the degree alone is not what does it.

BLS OEWS California state medians (May 2025) and the BLS Employment Projections occupation matrix, priced with IPEDS 2023 tuition and fees: in-district at public two-year colleges, in-state by university system. Community colleges that award a bachelor's degree are filed by IPEDS as four-year institutions and are excluded from the four-year figures

 
Careers BLS says need a certificate rather than a degree, at California wages, by total pay over ten years. A year in-district is about $1,288 against about $30,408 for four years of in-state tuition at a CSU campus, or $58,240 at a UC campus. Tuition and fees on both sides. These programmes run from a few weeks to two years, so the total depends on the programme. A year of California community college costs $1,288 Two certificate careers out-earn the median bachelor's-level one in California, against eight on the two-year chart. The extra year is doing real work.

BLS OEWS California state medians (May 2025) and the BLS Employment Projections occupation matrix, priced with IPEDS 2023 tuition and fees: in-district at public two-year colleges, in-state by university system. Community colleges that award a bachelor's degree are filed by IPEDS as four-year institutions and are excluded from the four-year figures

 
Every professional degree the calculator models, against 30 years of pay. Debt runs from $130,000 to $279,900, a spread of 2.2 times. Pay runs from $1.8M to $12.0M, a spread of 6.6 times. The degree sets the debt, the specialty sets the pay Thirty-one careers, eight debt figures. What you borrow varies about twice over. What it earns you varies more than six times.

College Scorecard field-of-study release (June 2026), AAMC/ADEA/ABA averages, and BLS OEWS national medians (May 2025)

 
$31,000 is the most a dependent undergraduate can borrow federally. On a $61,000 salary, income-driven, Standard and 2026 RAP all clear it inside a decade, and the whole spread between them is $984. Borrow the federal maximum for a bachelor's and the plan barely matters At the federal undergraduate cap on a median salary, the cheapest and the dearest repayment plans finish $984 apart.

Modeled with the calculator, at the federal Direct rate, against the median of 825 BLS occupational medians

 
Total pay over the first ten years of work for the highest-paying occupations BLS says need less than a bachelor's degree. All twenty beat the median bachelor's-level career, and ten of them need no college at all. The 20 best-paid careers that need less than four years of school Ten of the twenty need no college at all. Only 31 of the 535 short-path careers actually beat the bachelor's median.

BLS OEWS national release (May 2025), with BLS typical entry-level education by occupation

 
San Francisco wages against the national median for the same job, discounted by what it costs to live there. It is still ahead in all nine occupations. Everyone says the rent eats the raise The expensive city usually still wins, by 9% to 62%. With one caveat about which prices the index actually measures.

BLS OEWS wages with BEA Regional Price Parities

 
Median debt at graduation for the same professional degree runs from $37,167 to $439,325 depending only on which school you attend. Same degree, seven times the debt Same credential, same license, same job. Pharmacy runs seven times cheaper at one school than another.

College Scorecard field-of-study release, June 2026

 
Everything the government will lend for four years of a dependent undergraduate is $27,000 in the student's name and $65,000 in a parent's. Parent PLUS sits outside every income-driven plan, so 71% of the debt never moves with the repayment choice. The family maximum is $92,000 and $65,000 of it is your parents' Borrow every federal dollar available for four years and three quarters of it lands in a parent's name, on a fixed schedule no plan can change.

Modeled with the calculator, from the class-standing Direct limits and the OBBBA Parent PLUS aggregate

 
Everything earned in the 30 years after a bachelor's degree, capped at each occupation's own published 90th percentile. Twelve of the twenty are physicians, and only three are reachable on a bachelor's degree alone. Each row also carries how many people BLS counts doing the job, which separates a well-paid career from a large one. The 20 careers that earn most in 30 years, and 16 are health care Twelve physicians, three dentists, one nurse anesthetist, and three careers you can reach without graduate school.

BLS OEWS national release (May 2025), grown and capped by the calculator's own earnings model. Employment is OEWS TOT_EMP from the same release, which surveys establishments and therefore excludes the self-employed

 
Every federal loan is billed for more than it hands over, because the origination fee comes off at disbursement. On Parent PLUS you sign for $20,883 to receive $20,000. You asked for $20,000. You pay back $31,070 The fee comes off before you see the money, and the ten-year floor is 1.55 times what reached your account.

Rates and origination fees from studentaid.gov, as modeled by the calculator

 
The ten majors with the highest early-career pay, shown beside their unemployment and underemployment rates. What the data says is the best major Ranked by early-career pay, with the two rates that decide whether the pay is actually reachable.

New York Fed, Labor Market for Recent College Graduates

 
Every business degree tiered by early-career pay and by the share of graduates working in jobs that do not require the degree. Business majors, ranked by what they actually pay The pattern is that specific beats general. Every degree with Business in its name is above 30% underemployment.

New York Fed, Labor Market for Recent College Graduates

 
A tier list of college majors built from early-career pay, unemployment and underemployment rather than reputation. College majors, ranked by the job market The tiers come from three published numbers, not from vibes. Some of the surprises are in the D row.

New York Fed, Labor Market for Recent College Graduates

 
Median federal debt at graduation by field, students against parents, showing how the Parent PLUS cap compresses what a family can borrow. The federal cap is doing the flattening Student borrowing barely moves across fields. Parent borrowing is what varies, and the 2026 cap is what changed.

College Scorecard field-of-study release, June 2026

 
Annual tuition for domestic undergraduates at each country's highest-ranked university, converted to U.S. dollars. What a top university charges around the world Harvard charges $59,320. The top university in France charges about $200. Tuition is also only two thirds of the American number.

University fee schedules, 2025-26 published rates

 
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