What UC and Cal State graduates earn, by major and campus

The major matters, and so does the campus

UC Berkeley computer science graduates working in California earned a median of $157,600 two years after graduating, $216,000 at five years and $262,600 at ten. The same major at UCLA reached $220,300 at ten years. Computer science is the best-paid major family at 8 of the nine UC campuses ten years out.

Pick a campus to see every major it has figures for. UC campuses use UC’s own data, updated July 16, 2026. Cal State campuses use the federal College Scorecard, released October 15, 2026. The two count different people, so compare majors within one system.

Pay by major at one campus

The best-paid major at each UC, ten years out

University of California, graduates working in California and not enrolled in school, all graduating classes UC has followed for ten years.

The best-paid Cal State majors, five years out

• Computer Science, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo$179,459
• Computer Engineering, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo$162,720
• Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing, San Francisco State$159,614
• Computer Engineering, San Jose State$159,053
• Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing, San Jose State$157,894

College Scorecard, graduates of 2016-17 and 2017-18, earnings in 2022 and 2023 in 2024 dollars. Out of 860 Cal State majors with a printed five-year figure.

How the two sources differ

UC’s figures come from California wage records, so they count only graduates working in California and leave out anyone enrolled in school. UC groups majors into broad families such as Engineering or Biology, rounds medians to the nearest hundred dollars and reports its annualized earnings measure. Its tool follows graduates of 2002-03 through 2023-24, so the ten-year figure comes from older classes than the two-year one.

College Scorecard uses federal tax records, so it counts graduates working anywhere in the US, but only those who received a federal grant or loan as students. It lists majors by federal program code, measures 1, 4, 5 and 7 years after finishing, and leaves out any major with too few graduates to publish. The legacy Scorecard fields for earnings after the highest credential are frozen at older classes, so we do not use them.

The CSU publishes its own earnings by campus and major on a Labor Market Outcomes dashboard. It turns away automated downloads and offers no per-campus file, so its figures are not on this page.