Biomedical/Medical Engineering at George Mason University

George Mason delivers solid mid-pack performance for biomedical engineering, landing right at Virginia's median and just below the national average. First-year earnings of $63,981 aren't spectacular—they trail UVA by roughly $3,000—but they're far ahead of VCU's $54,000. In a state with only three programs, ranking at the 60th percentile means Mason holds its own, particularly for a school with an 89% acceptance rate that serves a substantial population of Pell grant recipients.

The debt picture is reasonable at $23,625, yielding a manageable 0.37 debt-to-earnings ratio. Your child would need about five months of gross salary to cover their loans—a sustainable position for an engineering graduate. Mason's broader accessibility compared to UVA matters here: students can enter biomedical engineering without elite test scores and still achieve earnings within $3,000 of the state's top program.

The moderate sample size (30-100 graduates) suggests this program hasn't reached massive scale, so cohort-to-cohort variation could occur. Still, for families seeking an engineering degree at a public university price point with realistic admission standards, Mason represents fair value. The combination of middle-tier debt and middle-tier earnings creates a straightforward trade-off without major financial surprises.