UW-Whitewater Sociology (Bachelor's): Tuition, Graduate Salary, and Debt
- Bachelor's in Sociology
- Public university
- Whitewater, WI
- About 21 graduates a year
College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025
The short answer
UW-Whitewater sociology graduates earn about what sociology graduates earn nationally, $36,411 in their first year. The typical graduate leaves with $26,250 in federal loans, close to the national median of $25,000. Two other Wisconsin programs report higher pay.
How it compares
Each figure is the median for graduates of the program. The Wisconsin and national columns are the medians across all sociology bachelor's programs that report the figure.
Five years out, UW-Whitewater graduates earn about the national figure and about the same as the Wisconsin median.
Debt and first-year pay at every Wisconsin sociology program
Programs in the upper left give graduates higher pay for less debt. Dashed lines mark the Wisconsin 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 36% 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 $278 a month, or 9.2% 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
77% of graduates (23 of 30) were working in Wisconsin one year after graduating. Prices in the parts of Wisconsin outside metro areas are about 10% below the national average, so a $36,411 salary here buys what about $40,648 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 sociology, largest first. Pay is the median across all experience levels.
Social Science Research Assistants
$48,090Median pay in Wisconsin. 110 people work in this job in Wisconsin. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 5% from 2025 to 2035, with about 4,900 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.
Sociologists
$106,030Median pay nationwide. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 4% from 2025 to 2035, with about 200 openings a year. Typical education to start: master's degree.
About UW-Whitewater
Sociology ranks 28th of 35 bachelor's programs at UW-Whitewater by first-year earnings. The top three are Quality Control and Safety Technology ($70,016), Accounting ($61,926), and Finance ($55,874).
Other sociology bachelor's programs near Whitewater
Common questions
The median graduate earns $36,411 one year after graduating and $49,424 five years after. The median across sociology bachelor's programs in Wisconsin is $35,981.
The median federal loan balance is $26,250, which ranks 7th lowest of 9 sociology bachelor's programs in Wisconsin. That works out to about $278 a month over 10 years.
On the numbers, yes for most students. Debt equals 72% of first-year earnings, against a national median of 72%, and the share of borrowers in default two years into repayment is 20% or less.
Most do. 77% (23 of 30) were working in Wisconsin 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 Wisconsin 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 sociology 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