UMass Amherst Chemical Engineering (Bachelor's): Tuition, Graduate Salary, and Debt
- Bachelor's in Chemical Engineering
- Public university
- Amherst, MA
- About 61 graduates a year
College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025
The short answer
UMass Amherst chemical engineering graduates earn about what chemical engineering graduates earn nationally, $72,514 in their first year. Debt is high. The typical graduate leaves with $27,000 in federal loans, more than at 76% of chemical engineering programs in the country. Several Massachusetts programs report higher pay.
How it compares
Each figure is the median for graduates of the program. The Massachusetts and national columns are the medians across all chemical engineering bachelor's programs that report the figure.
Five years out, UMass Amherst graduates earn about the national figure but about $5,780 less than the Massachusetts median.
Debt and first-year pay at every Massachusetts chemical engineering program
Programs in the upper left give graduates higher pay for less debt. Dashed lines mark the Massachusetts 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 34% 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 $3,123 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 $286 a month, or 4.7% 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
74% of graduates (74 of 100) were working in Massachusetts one year after graduating. Prices in the Amherst Town area are about the same as the national average.
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
$201,430Median pay in Massachusetts. 7,690 people work in this job in Massachusetts. 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
$127,570Median pay in Massachusetts. 4,740 people work in this job in Massachusetts. 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
$118,000Median pay in Massachusetts. 1,460 people work in this job in Massachusetts. 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 UMass Amherst
Chemical Engineering ranks 6th of 45 bachelor's programs at UMass Amherst by first-year earnings. The top three are Computer Engineering ($89,327), Computer Science ($88,554), and Nursing ($81,452).
Other chemical engineering bachelor's programs near Amherst
Common questions
The median graduate earns $72,514 one year after graduating and $96,939 five years after. The median across chemical engineering bachelor's programs in Massachusetts is $78,074.
The median federal loan balance is $27,000, which ranks 2nd lowest of 5 chemical engineering bachelor's programs in Massachusetts. That works out to about $286 a month over 10 years.
It depends on your other options. Debt equals 37% of first-year earnings, against a national median of 32%. Compare the cost with other Massachusetts programs before deciding.
Most do. 74% (74 of 100) were working in Massachusetts 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 Massachusetts 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