Is a Marketing degree worth it?
Across 470 schools, graduates of Marketing earn a median $64,364 five years out on $22,314 of debt. Graduates most commonly work as Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists (modeled from the federal CIP-to-SOC crosswalk). These earnings and debt figures come from the U.S. Dept. of Education.
Median 5-yr pay
$64,364
Median debt
$22,314
Years to pay off
3.3
at 10% of pay
AI task exposure
55%
GPT-4-era overlap
10-yr job growth
+6.4%
BLS 2024–2034
Gender pay gap
9.2%
$72,356 vs $65,692
Net price
$19,608/yr
Debt-test failures
3.2%
of programs
'Real' premium
+$4,445
vs avg, adjusted
See where this degree leads, who's hiring, and whether the pay covers the rent.
Explore Marketing in full →Data: U.S. Dept. of Education College Scorecard, BLS OEWS, O*NET, AI-exposure measures (Eloundou/AIOE), Zillow. Earnings reflect federally-aided graduates; see the full story for methodology and limitations.