Best Colleges for Social Sciences: Ranked by Graduate Salary, Not Prestige
We rank by what graduates actually earn — not by reputation surveys.
Top Schools for Social Sciences — Ranked by Graduate Salary
These schools produce the highest-earning Social Sciences graduates, based on federal earnings data. We rank by salary outcomes, not prestige.
| # | School | Social Sciences Salary | Acceptance Rate | Degrees/Year | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brown University Providence, RI |
$69,750 | 5.2% | 361 | Reach |
| 2 | Columbia University New York, NY |
$69,750 | 4.2% | 647 | Reach |
| 3 | Cornell University Ithaca, NY |
$69,750 | 8.2% | 267 | Reach |
| 4 | Dartmouth College Hanover, NH |
$69,750 | 6.2% | 347 | Reach |
| 5 | Duke University Durham, NC |
$69,750 | 6.8% | 320 | Reach |
| 6 | Harvard University Cambridge, MA |
$69,750 | 3.5% | 638 | Reach |
| 7 | Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD |
$69,750 | 7.6% | 163 | Reach |
| 8 | New York University (NYU) New York, NY |
$69,750 | 9.4% | 949 | Reach |
| 9 | Northwestern University Evanston, IL |
$69,750 | 7.1% | 399 | Reach |
| 10 | Princeton University Princeton, NJ |
$69,750 | 4.5% | 253 | Reach |
| 11 | Stanford University Stanford, CA |
$69,750 | 3.9% | 244 | Reach |
| 12 | UCLA Los Angeles, CA |
$69,750 | 9.0% | 2,228 | Reach |
| 13 | University of Chicago Chicago, IL |
$69,750 | 4.8% | 684 | Reach |
| 14 | University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA |
$69,750 | 5.9% | 421 | Reach |
| 15 | Yale University New Haven, CT |
$69,750 | 4.5% | 326 | Reach |
| 16 | Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA |
$65,250 | 11.4% | 68 | Reach |
| 17 | Georgetown University Washington, DC |
$65,250 | 13.1% | 779 | Reach |
| 18 | Tufts University Medford, MA |
$65,250 | 10.1% | 390 | Reach |
| 19 | UC Berkeley Berkeley, CA |
$65,250 | 11.7% | 1,686 | Reach |
| 20 | USC Los Angeles, CA |
$65,250 | 10.0% | 539 | Reach |
| 21 | Georgia Tech Atlanta, GA |
$60,750 | 16.5% | 73 | Match |
| 22 | University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI |
$60,750 | 17.9% | 873 | Match |
| 23 | University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, NC |
$60,750 | 18.7% | 628 | Match |
| 24 | University of Virginia Charlottesville, VA |
$60,750 | 16.9% | 605 | Match |
| 25 | Texas A&M University Austin, TX |
$56,250 | 29.1% | 888 | Match |
| 26 | UC Irvine Irvine, CA |
$56,250 | 25.6% | 1,329 | Match |
| 27 | UC San Diego La Jolla, CA |
$56,250 | 24.5% | 941 | Match |
| 28 | UC Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA |
$56,250 | 27.8% | 1,758 | Match |
| 29 | University of Florida Gainesville, FL |
$56,250 | 24.0% | 1,026 | Match |
| 30 | UC Davis Davis, CA |
$51,749 | 41.6% | 1,145 | Safety |
Data source: IPEDS, College Scorecard.