Sociology at Wake Forest University

Wake Forest's sociology graduates start at $46,257—outearning peers at 32 of 34 North Carolina programs and landing in the 95th percentile nationally. Only Duke's sociology majors earn more in the state. The numbers look especially strong against North Carolina's median of $31,728, though the small sample size (under 30 graduates) means these figures could shift with more data points.

The debt picture is reasonable at $23,000, translating to a manageable 0.50 ratio against first-year earnings. Combined with 25% earnings growth to nearly $58,000 by year four, graduates appear to be building solid career trajectories. This makes sense given Wake Forest's selective profile—students here benefit from the institution's strong reputation and network effects that sociology majors at less selective schools might not access.

The caveat matters: with fewer than 30 graduates in the dataset, a handful of high or low earners could significantly skew these numbers. That said, the wide gap between Wake Forest's outcomes and both state and national averages suggests real programmatic strength rather than statistical noise. For families already considering Wake Forest's $23,000 debt load manageable, the sociology program appears to deliver substantially better outcomes than typical alternatives.