Penn State Information Science (Bachelor's): Tuition, Graduate Salary, and Debt
- Bachelor's in Information Science/Studies
- Public university
- University Park, PA
- About 489 graduates a year
College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025
The short answer
Penn State information science graduates earn more than graduates of most information science programs nationally, $66,209 in their first year. The typical graduate leaves with $26,000 in federal loans, close to the national median of $25,000. Two other Pennsylvania programs report higher pay.
How it compares
Each figure is the median for graduates of the program. The Pennsylvania and national columns are the medians across all information science bachelor's programs that report the figure.
Five years out, Penn State graduates earn more than the national figure and about $5,529 more than the Pennsylvania median.
Debt and first-year pay at every Pennsylvania information science 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 40% 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 $13,827 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 $276 a month, or 5.0% 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, 268 parents took out Parent PLUS loans for these students, with a median of $33,738.
Where graduates work, and what the pay is worth
64% of graduates (705 of 1,098) were working in Pennsylvania one year after graduating. Prices in the State College area are about 3% below the national average, so a $66,209 salary here buys what about $68,425 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 information science, largest first. Pay is the median across all experience levels.
Software Developers
$126,550Median pay in Pennsylvania. 55,920 people work in this job in Pennsylvania. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 10% from 2025 to 2035, with about 95,300 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.
Computer and Information Systems Managers
$163,910Median pay in Pennsylvania. 27,060 people work in this job in Pennsylvania. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 16% from 2025 to 2035, with about 53,500 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree, plus 5 years or more of related work experience.
Web and Digital Interface Designers
$104,160Median pay in Pennsylvania. 2,820 people work in this job in Pennsylvania. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 6% from 2025 to 2035, with about 8,300 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.
Database Architects
$139,500Median pay nationwide. 2,840 people work in this job in Pennsylvania. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 9% from 2025 to 2035, with about 3,900 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree, plus less than 5 years of related work experience.
About Penn State
Information Science ranks 26th 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).
Common questions
The median graduate earns $66,209 one year after graduating and $92,982 five years after. The median across information science bachelor's programs in Pennsylvania is $61,163.
The median federal loan balance is $26,000, which ranks 2nd lowest of 7 information science bachelor's programs in Pennsylvania. That works out to about $276 a month over 10 years.
On the numbers, yes for most students. Debt equals 39% of first-year earnings, against a national median of 41%, and the share of borrowers in default two years into repayment is 2% or less.
Most do. 64% (705 of 1,098) 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 information science 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