The National Median, Explained
The national median for a major is the middle graduate across every college in the country offering that major at the same degree level.
The national median for a major is the middle graduate across every college in the country offering that major at the same degree level. Nursing's national median rests on hundreds of thousands of graduates; a small field's may rest on a few thousand. We use it as the fallback whenever a single college's program is too small for a trustworthy figure of its own. It answers the question 'what does this major usually pay?' - it does not claim to answer 'what does this college's version of the major pay?', and every fallback figure on this site is badged so the two never blur.