James Madison University Career Outcomes & Earnings

For James Madison University, mobility stands apart, and the return evidence splits between peer comparison and the expectation model. Azimuth places the return pillar in the 71st percentile among nonprofit four-year institutions.

Graduates earn about $6,307 less than the model expects for similar students. Among nonprofit four-year institutions, that earnings-beyond-expectations result is in the 31st percentile.

The part the model attributes to the factors it measures (field of study, enrollment and the local labor market) adds $11,498. The part it attributes to a remainder it does not explain subtracts $17,805.

Median earnings four years after completion are $70,627, in the 77th percentile. The peer median, the middle value for comparable institutions of the same type and size, is $65,610; school earnings are $5,017 above it.

The return picture is mixed: peer earnings are above the median, but graduates earn less than the model expects.

The earnings range at James Madison University is wide enough that field choice changes the financial picture. Earnings scenarios run from $55,254 in the downside case to $96,111 in the upside case, with $70,627 as the typical scenario; these are scenarios estimated from the program mix, not observed graduate groups.

Among higher-earning fields, Information Science/Studies has median earnings of $113,345 four years after completion, Finance reaches $104,926, and Computer and Information Sciences reaches $104,806. Those field-level results help explain the distance between the downside and upside scenarios.

Graduate study affects how the four-year earnings figure should be read. An estimated 29.6% of graduates continue to graduate study, a figure estimated from the program mix rather than observed enrollment.

Earnings cover completers who are working and not enrolled, so people continuing their education are outside that snapshot.

The highest-earning programs at James Madison University are concentrated in technical and business fields, and they are not the largest. Information Science/Studies leads at $113,345 from 155 degrees awarded, and Azimuth ranks it #5 nationally within its field.

Finance follows at $104,926 with 140 degrees awarded and an Azimuth national rank of #32. Among the larger programs, earnings are more moderate.

Mental and Social Health Services and Allied Professions awards 453 degrees and shows median earnings of $67,033; Azimuth ranks it #2 nationally. Psychology is the lowest-earning of the large programs at $56,212 from 272 degrees awarded, with an Azimuth national rank of #84.

These programs show a wide spread in median earnings four years after completion.

At James Madison University, the strongest program placements sit beside a wider range of earnings by field. The university has 38 ranked bachelor’s programs, making individual program pages more useful than a single schoolwide outcome figure for comparing majors.

Azimuth places Mental and Social Health Services and Allied Professions at #2 nationally in its field among nonprofit four-year institutions. It awarded 453 degrees, and median earnings were $67,033 four years after completion.

Systems Science and Theory is #2 nationally in its field through Azimuth, with 55 degrees awarded and $91,034 in median earnings four years after completion. Azimuth lists Science, Technology and Society at #3 nationally in its field; 82 degrees were awarded, and completers had median earnings of $82,455 four years after completion.