Median debt for each program includes only cumulative Title IV federal student loan debt disbursed to completers to finance graduate education at the specified institution. It does not incorporate accrued interest, and it does not include debt for completers who never borrowed Title IV loans.

The debt-to-earnings metric is based on an analysis of debt payments amortized over 20 years for professional degrees and over 15 years for master’s degrees, using a 6.5 percent interest rate, with a graduated repayment adjustment to account for earnings growth over the repayment period. If the payments under these assumptions exceed 10 percent of earnings above the state living wage for an individual adult without children, the program fails the debt-to-earnings test. If median annual earnings for program graduates are below the living wage for the state in which the program is located, the program fails this metric regardless of borrowers’ debt levels. The following programs are excluded from this analysis due to potentially atypical earnings trajectories: master’s degree programs in clinical, counseling, and applied psychology; master’s degree programs in mental and social health services and allied professions; professional degree programs in healthcare professions; professional degree programs in clinical, counseling, and applied psychology; and professional degree programs in mental and social health services and allied professions.

The in-field earnings premium is calculated relative to the earnings of 25-to-34-year-olds with bachelor’s degrees in the same field of study working in the state in which the institution is located. If the in-field earnings premium for completers is less than 5 percent, the program fails the in-field earnings premium test. This 5 percent cushion accounts for noise in the earnings data. The following programs are excluded from this analysis due to potentially atypical earnings trajectories: master’s degree programs in clinical, counseling, and applied psychology; master’s degree programs in mental and social health services and allied professions; professional degree programs in healthcare professions; professional degree programs in clinical, counseling, and applied psychology; and professional degree programs in mental and social health services and allied professions.

Due to privacy considerations, the College Scorecard provides earnings data for only 23 percent of master’s degree programs, 30 percent of professional degree programs, and 7 percent of doctoral degree programs. These programs cover 65 percent of master’s and professional degrees awarded, but only 23 percent of doctoral degrees awarded. The College Scorecard provides both earnings and debt data for 16 percent of master’s degree programs, 25 percent of professional degree programs, and 4 percent of doctoral degree programs.

If a program lacks either earnings or debt data, the data tool identifies its performance on the affected test(s) as “suppressed.” If results for both tests are suppressed, the program is listed under the “only programs with no test results” tab in the table.

Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce analysis of data from the US Department of Education, College Scorecard, 2023; the US Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS), 2009–21 (pooled); and Glasmeier, “Living Wage Calculator,” 2023.