Diplomas, Demographics, Dollars, and Debt: The Latest Data on Atmospheric Sciences Degree Recipients, Early-Career Salaries, and Government Debt Load

How many B.S. atmospheric scientists graduate in the U.S. in a given year? What are their starting salaries? How much do they make three years out from their degree? How much government debt do they incur? These are highly relevant questions to the younger members of the AMS who are the future of this organization--but those questions can't be answered by going to the AMS Education & Careers link online.

Unlike most other fields, the atmospheric sciences does not have an organization that compiles and disseminates information for its students and graduates. In this presentation, I update the information provided in my two previous Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society articles (Knox 2008; Knox, 2023) regarding the number of B.S. recipients, their early-career salaries, and their debt loads.

The data come from the College Scorecard Initiative, created by the U.S. government in 2015 as a source of information on American higher education for consumers. The College Scorecard database contains data at an unprecedented degree of granularity, providing standardized, annually updated information on "diplomas, dollars, and debt." While this presentation will focus on recipients of B.S. degrees in the atmospheric sciences, the College Scorecard contains the same information at all degree levels for every major at every university in the United States.

I recommend that the AMS Council partner with the American Institute of Physics' Statistical Research Center to compile and disseminate information regarding atmospheric sciences graduates. As the pre-eminent organization in our field, and as a service to the many students who pay dues to and participate in its activities, the AMS should be the annual provider of and the repository for this data in the future.