Software Developmentat The New School
Graduates earn $29,550/yr in their first year — about 36.0% below the national Software Development average. Base-case 10-year earnings $384K; scenarios range from $403K to $369K depending on AI disruption.
What this degree looks like at The New School
While the career paths listed are lucrative, your outcomes here are tied to The New School's identity as a creative, arts-focused institution. This isn't a traditional, theory-heavy computer science program designed to funnel you into backend engineering at a major tech firm or a quantitative hedge fund. Instead, the curriculum likely emphasizes the intersection of code with design, media, and interactive art. You'll be competing for jobs in the hyper-competitive New York City market against graduates from more established, engineering-focused programs at places like NYU and Columbia. Employers in high-tech and finance often have strong recruiting pipelines with those schools, which can be difficult to break into from the outside.
Actionable advice: Scrutinize the curriculum and alumni outcomes. If your goal is a pure software engineering role, be prepared to supplement your learning heavily to build the rigorous theoretical and algorithmic skills that top tech employers demand.
Three scenarios, ten years out
Each scenario is a different assumption about how AI reshapes the career paths this major feeds into. Earnings projections stack the full 10-year cumulative trajectory; scores use the same 0–100 metric as the hero, recomputed under that scenario's assumptions.
10 year projection
Year-by-year earnings under each scenario. Base case reflects BLS growth patterns applied to The New School's starting earnings; optimistic and pessimistic adjust for AI's effect on each career path this major feeds into.
Common career destinations for this program's graduates, weighted by the school's specific occupation mix. Salary is BLS national median; AI risk is per-role task-exposure research.
Peer schools offering Software Development
How The New School stacks up against other schools offering this major.
Other top programs at The New School
Other highest-scoring programs offered at The New School, ranked by DegreeOutlook Score.
Consider the trade route
Not sure a 4-year degree is the right path? Trade programs in Software Development offer shorter timelines, lower debt, and strong AI resilience for hands-on careers.
Compare Software Development trade programs on TradeSchoolOutlook →Frequently asked about Software Development at The New School
What is the DegreeOutlook Score for Software Development at The New School?
A score of 30/100 indicates below-average financial outcomes for Software Development. Earnings, ROI, or AI risk factors are pulling the score down.
Will AI replace Software Development careers?
With 70% of typical job tasks exposed to AI, this is one of the higher-risk fields. Our pessimistic scenario projects $402,889 in decade earnings vs $369,044 in the optimistic case — a meaningful gap.
Can you still earn well with Software Development from The New School?
First-year earnings trail the national median, but starting salary isn't the full picture. Regional cost of living, career trajectory, and tuition cost all factor in. Check the five-year earnings data when available.