Historic Preservation and Conservation

Interdisciplinary Studies

Historic Preservation and Conservation graduates with a master's typically earned about $65,867, measured a few years after finishing (median across US programs, College Scorecard).

Explore this major →

Median earnings by degree level

Degree	Median earnings	Typical range	Schools	Clear the bar
Master's Degree	$65,867	$52,736 to $71,025	6	100%

"Clear the bar" is the share of programs whose graduates out-earn a typical high-school graduate (the federal earnings-premium test). Typical range is the 25th to 75th percentile of program medians.

Job outlook

Projected employment growth +3% (2025 to 2035), about 130,000 openings a year across the occupations this field commonly leads to.

Occupation	Median pay	Growth	Openings/yr
Managers, All Other	$141,900	+4.9%	100,900
Facilities Managers	$106,660	+4.6%	14,200
Postsecondary Teachers, All Other	$77,640	+2%	12,500
Archivists	$64,550	+3.4%	1,100
Area, Ethnic, and Cultural Studies Teachers, Postsecondary	$85,020	+2.7%	1,000
Historians	$76,750	+3%	300

Occupation pay and outlook: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (OEWS wages, Employment Projections). A field maps to several occupations, and the same occupations serve many majors, so these are the jobs this major commonly leads to, not positions reserved for its graduates; the openings should not be added up across majors.

Where this is studied

The 8 colleges where the most students complete a historic preservation and conservation program, of 57 that report one. Ordered by number of completions only: this is where people study it, not a judgement about where to.

University of Mary Washington 34 completions
University of Kentucky 28 completions
College of Charleston 28 completions
University of Delaware 23 completions
Columbia University in the City of New York 19 completions
Tulane University of Louisiana 16 completions
Johns Hopkins University 16 completions
University of Southern California 13 completions

Earnings source: U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard (release 2026-06-10), median earnings of graduates measured up to four years after completing. Figures describe past graduates and are never a promise. Method: methodology. Report an error.