Penn State Chemical Engineering (Bachelor's): Tuition, Graduate Salary, and Debt
- Bachelor's in Chemical Engineering
- Public university
- University Park, PA
- About 139 graduates a year
College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025
The short answer
Penn State chemical engineering graduates earn more than graduates of most chemical engineering programs nationally, $82,218 in their first year. The typical graduate leaves with $26,831 in federal loans, close to the national median of $23,274. It is one of the higher-paying chemical engineering degrees in Pennsylvania.
How it compares
Each figure is the median for graduates of the program. The Pennsylvania and national columns are the medians across all chemical engineering bachelor's programs that report the figure.
Five years out, Penn State graduates earn about the national figure and about the same as the Pennsylvania median.
Debt and first-year pay at every Pennsylvania chemical engineering program
Programs in the upper left give graduates higher pay for less debt. Dashed lines mark the Pennsylvania 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 21% between the first and fifth year.
Year 1 and year 5 figures come from different graduating classes, so the growth rate is an estimate.
Does family income change the outcome?
Graduates who received Pell Grants, which go to students from lower-income families, earned $2,477 less in their first year than other graduates. Students who expect to rely on grants should weigh this gap.
Paying back the loans
On a standard 10-year plan, the median debt means a payment of about $284 a month, or 4.1% 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. Separately, 42 parents took out Parent PLUS loans for these students, with a median of $48,257.
Where graduates work, and what the pay is worth
55% of graduates (109 of 200) were working in Pennsylvania one year after graduating. Prices in the State College area are about 3% below the national average, so a $82,218 salary here buys what about $84,969 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 chemical engineering, largest first. Pay is the median across all experience levels.
Architectural and Engineering Managers
$164,690Median pay in Pennsylvania. 9,640 people work in this job in Pennsylvania. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 6% from 2025 to 2035, with about 14,900 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree, plus 5 years or more of related work experience.
Bioengineers and Biomedical Engineers
$122,560Median pay in Pennsylvania. 950 people work in this job in Pennsylvania. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 8% from 2025 to 2035, with about 1,200 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.
Chemical Engineers
$116,970Median pay in Pennsylvania. 810 people work in this job in Pennsylvania. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 5% from 2025 to 2035, with about 1,100 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.
About Penn State
Chemical Engineering ranks 4th of 103 bachelor's programs at Penn State by first-year earnings. The top three are Petroleum Engineering ($85,795), Computer Engineering ($85,446), and Computer and Information Science ($84,050).
Other chemical engineering bachelor's programs near University Park
Common questions
The median graduate earns $82,218 one year after graduating and $99,826 five years after. The median across chemical engineering bachelor's programs in Pennsylvania is $79,602.
The median federal loan balance is $26,831, which ranks 4th lowest of 9 chemical engineering bachelor's programs in Pennsylvania. That works out to about $284 a month over 10 years.
It depends on your other options. Debt equals 33% of first-year earnings, against a national median of 32%. Compare the cost with other Pennsylvania programs before deciding.
Most do. 55% (109 of 200) were working in Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania 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 chemical engineering 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