Atmospheric Sciences Bachelor’s Degree Recipients: Trends, Early Career Earnings, and Student Debt, 2015–19

Abstract

Abstract Data on the number and economic status of bachelor’s degree recipients are harder to access for the atmospheric sciences than for other similar fields. The U.S. Department of Education’s College Scorecard provides a new, comprehensive, and annually updated way to obtain these data. Five years of College Scorecard data are analyzed, revealing that from 2015 to 2019 the number of bachelor’s recipients in the United States was at least 700 annually, with a downward trend of about 13% over the period. Institution-specific data allow for a ranking of undergraduate programs by number of bachelor’s recipients that has been impossible to compile since the demise of the American Meteorological Society (AMS)–University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) Curricula publication in the mid-2000s. Early career earnings data for federally aided students from larger programs compiled in the College Scorecard indicate that median first-year annual salaries by the end of the 2010s averaged about $35,000, with an increase to $45,000 by the third year. Median debt at graduation during the same period averaged slightly less than $25,000. In the future, College Scorecard data could be used to provide regular updates on atmospheric sciences students, graduates, and early career professionals at all degree levels. The AMS should partner with the American Institute of Physics’ Statistical Research Center to create and disseminate such reports.