Thousands of students are graduating from local universities and transitioning into the work world, bringing fresh faces and ideas — and immense career earning power.

Fresno County is home to Fresno State, Fresno Pacific, and California Health Sciences University. Additionally, University of California, Merced is just an hour away.

The four universities report a total of almost 8,500 students walking at commencement this spring. This includes hundreds of students receiving master’s and doctorate degrees.

Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce says a bachelor’s degree holder will earn a median average of $2.8 million during their career — 75% more than the median average for a high school grad ($1.6 million).

Multiply the Fresno area’s 8,500 college graduates by $2.8 million and their career earning power computes to $23.8 billion.

However, the figure is conservative because of California’s higher wages and the expected lifetime earnings of grads with master’s degrees ($3.2 million) and doctorates ($4 million). And it doesn’t include 2025 graduates from schools such as University of Phoenix-Fresno and National University-Fresno.

Now here’s more good news for the Fresno economy: Much of that income will be generated, invested, and spent here.

Based on data from Lightcast, an economic data mining service that the CSU partners with, of the 20,701 public profiles of Fresno State alumni who graduated between 2015 and 2025, 83.96% live and work in Central California, said Fresno State public information officer Lisa Bell.

The other universities do not track where students go after college, but an analysis by Tallo, a website that connects students with resources, showed that 61% of college students plan on finding a job close to where they attended college.

In addition, UC Merced and Fresno State report that over 50% of the graduating class are first-generation students.

Top Majors Among Graduates

The programs promising the highest pay are all STEM courses, but there is a wide variety of top majors from the four universities.

Engineering and computer science are highest-paying majors according to Forbes. Both were a part of UC Merced’s most popular majors alongside biological sciences.

However, Fresno States’ top majors were psychology, liberal studies, and biology. Fresno Pacific undergrads swayed towards liberal arts and early childhood development.

There’s a clear mix of humanities, social sciences, and sciences among the Central Valley graduates, promising an even distribution between fields.

California Health Sciences University had 109 medical students, and 22 master’s program students graduate with 23% completing residencies in the Central Valley. Sixty percent of the residencies are in Primary Care.

Breakdown of Colleges and Degrees

Fresno State had the biggest graduating class with 6,018 students walking at commencement: 5,125 receiving bachelor’s degrees and 866 getting their master’s.

The doctoral cohorts and candidates consisted of 58 students receiving Doctor of Physical Therapy, Doctor of Educational Leadership, and Doctor of Nursing Practice.

The College of Science and Mathematics had the largest class with a little over 1,000 graduates.

UC Merced had 1,417 students walk at commencement with 1,296 getting a bachelor’s degree, 41 receiving a master’s degree, and 80 obtaining doctorates.

The School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts had the largest class with 781 students walking.

Fresno Pacific held ceremonies for 863 students graduating this spring. There were 467 students completing a bachelor’s degree and 396 students finishing a master’s degree.

The largest number of students, 636, graduated from the School of Graduate and Professional Studies.