Athens State English (Bachelor's): Tuition, Graduate Salary, and Debt
- Bachelor's in English Language and Literature, General
- Public university
- Athens, AL
- About 23 graduates a year
College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025
The short answer
Athens State English graduates earn more than graduates of most English programs nationally, $40,917 in their first year. Debt is high. The typical graduate leaves with $26,833 in federal loans, more than at 77% of English programs in the country. It is one of the higher-paying English degrees in Alabama.
How it compares
Each figure is the median for graduates of the program. The Alabama and national columns are the medians across all English bachelor's programs that report the figure.
Five years out, Athens State graduates earn less than the national figure and about the same as the Alabama median.
Debt and first-year pay at every Alabama English program
Programs in the upper left give graduates higher pay for less debt. Dashed lines mark the Alabama medians.
Hover over or tap a dot to see the school. Only programs that report both earnings and debt are shown.
What graduates earn over time
Pay rises about 6% between the first and fifth year.
Year 1 and year 5 figures come from different graduating classes, so the growth rate is an estimate.
Paying back the loans
On a standard 10-year plan, the median debt means a payment of about $284 a month, or 8.3% of a graduate's typical monthly pay in the first year.
The government publishes these as ranges to protect privacy. They were measured in 2018 to 2020, partly during the pandemic pause on federal loan payments, so the forbearance share may be higher than usual.
Where graduates work, and what the pay is worth
95% of graduates (21 of 22) were working in Alabama one year after graduating. Prices in the Huntsville area are about 7% below the national average, so a $40,917 salary here buys what about $43,963 buys in a typical US city.
Careers this field leads to
These are the jobs that the federal crosswalk from fields of study to occupations links to English, largest first. Pay is the median across all experience levels.
Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education
$61,990Median pay in Alabama. 15,880 people work in this job in Alabama. Nationally, jobs are projected to stay about the same in number from 2025 to 2035, with about 63,500 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.
Proofreaders and Copy Markers
$51,120Median pay nationwide. Nationally, jobs are projected to shrink 1% from 2025 to 2035, with about 1,100 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.
About Athens State
English ranks 11th of 15 bachelor's programs at Athens State by first-year earnings. The top three are Computer and Information Science ($78,435), Other Business ($63,754), and Mathematics ($57,584).
Other English bachelor's programs near Athens
Common questions
The median graduate earns $40,917 one year after graduating and $43,504 five years after. The median across English bachelor's programs in Alabama is $32,769.
The median federal loan balance is $26,833, which ranks 8th lowest of 8 English bachelor's programs in Alabama. That works out to about $284 a month over 10 years.
On the numbers, yes for most students. Debt equals 66% of first-year earnings, against a national median of 77%.
Most do. 95% (21 of 22) were working in Alabama one year after graduating.
About this data
- Earnings and debt only include students who received federal financial aid (grants or loans).
- Earnings only count graduates who were working and not enrolled in more school. Graduates who went straight to further study are not included.
- Debt only includes federal loans. Private loans and credit cards are not counted.
- Some schools with several campuses report one combined figure for all of them. We count each of those schools once, and leave them out of Alabama comparisons when their main campus is in another state.
- Scorecard figures describe graduating classes from several years ago. BLS wages are from May 2025.
- School-level numbers like tuition, admission rate, and graduation rate are for the whole school, not the English program.
Sources
- U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard, field of study and institution files, June 2026 release
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2025 to 2035
- Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Price Parities, 2024
- NCES, CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk, and IPEDS institution directory, 2024