Degree Dollars and Cents: Find Out What Massachusetts Public College Graduates Make by Major and Degree with PSEO Explorer
Degree Dollars and Cents: Find Out What Massachusetts Public College Graduates Make by Major and Degree with PSEO Explorer
Posted on 9/20/2024
Have you ever wondered what graduates of Roxbury Community College earn with a computer and information science degree? Or what graduates of UMass Amherst make with a psychology degree versus a business degree? Or some other public college with a different degree? There’s a free, online tool that tells you!
What is PSEO Explorer?
The US Census Bureau developed the Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes (PSEO) Explorer tool to show earnings and employment outcomes for US public college and university graduates. It gathers these data through collaborations with universities, state education departments, and labor market information offices, supplemented by various surveys. NextGen Talent recommends PSEO Explorer to help you and your students explore the labor market value of different degree programs in Massachusetts and beyond. It can be used to explore the earnings of public college graduates by degree level, degree major, and postsecondary institution.
How NextGen Talent Uses PSEO Data
NextGen Talent saves our partner organizations and schools time by conducting research and analysis to identify which specific postsecondary programs in our state pay off in the job market. College graduates’ earnings should be a key consideration for all students and families – but especially for low-income students – as they consider which programs and institutions to enroll in.
At NextGen Talent, we use PSEO to gauge the economic value of degrees at 2- and 4-year colleges and universities. Our primary questions when analyzing these data are:
Will graduates of X degree program earn a livable wage?
Will they see a good economic return on their college investment?
The answers to these questions help NextGen Talent assess whether a program is of high value in the regional labor market. Programs that meet our criteria are featured in our Navigator high-value postsecondary program finder.
How to Access and Use PSEO Data
You can access Massachusetts PSEO data through the PSEO Explorer. This tool lets you filter information by college/university, degree level (certificate, associate, bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral), degree major, cohort, and more.
PSEO Explorer displays earnings data for graduates one year, five years, and 10 years after graduation¹. You can download state-specific datasets for a comprehensive view of all partner state universities in the US.
Another Essential Resource: College Scorecard
In addition to PSEO, NextGen Talent uses the US Department of Education’s College Scorecard. This tool offers detailed information on various postsecondary institutions and programs. We use College Scorecard data to gather median loan debt on different college programs and to supplement our analysis of graduate earnings where available.
How PSEO & College Scorecard Differ
Why PSEO Explorer Matters
PSEO Explorer provides crucial, data-driven insights into expected earnings and employment outcomes for graduates of public college programs. Combined with NextGen Talent’s tools and College Scorecard, PSEO Explorer helps students make more informed decisions to ensure a positive return on educational investment.
For example, let’s say you have a high school student who is weighing different public colleges – and different college majors. While money should never be the only consideration when pondering where to enroll and what to study, it is important to understand potential earnings from a postsecondary credential versus cost, particularly for students without a financial safety net. Most young people attend college to earn a credential that will get them a family-sustaining job. One way to get a sense of this is to find out what graduates of specific college programs typically earn. Students empowered with this information can better gauge the kind of lifestyle they can expect and use this knowledge to make wiser financial and postsecondary decisions.
¹The most recent PSEO data is adjusted to 2021 dollars.