Maryland·Transportation and Material Moving Occupations·SOC 53-3052

Best Bus Driver programs in Maryland, ranked by enrollment

Drive bus or motor coach, including regular route operations, charters, and private carriage. May assist passengers with baggage.

4 schools in Maryland run programs that feed this job, graduating 420 people a year. The job pays a median of $65,220 in Maryland across about 4,890 jobs (BLS OEWS May 2025).

Also calledBus DriverBus OperatorTransit Bus DriverMotor Coach OperatorStage DriverJitney DriverCharter DriverCoach Operator
Graduates / yr
420
in Maryland
Median pay · Maryland
$65,220
BLS OEWS May 2025
Jobs in state
4,890
people employed
Schools
4
with a feeder program
Avg graduation rate
50%
across those schools
Median net price
$21,068
per year, IPEDS

Fields of study in Maryland that lead to this job

Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level. Numbers are graduates per year in this state.

1 programs in Maryland that lead to this job

Ranked by graduates per year in Maryland (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are national College Scorecard figures reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. Each program also links to its own Maryland page.

Degree programs that lead to this occupation, ranked by graduates per year
#ProgramGraduates / yrShare of pipelineSchoolsGrad earnings (1 yr)Median debt
1
CIP 49.0205In Maryland
420
100.0%
4$42,812$7,572

Top 4 schools in Maryland

Ranked by graduates per year into this job. Graduate earnings are reported for 3 of the 4 schools in this state.

Schools ranked by graduates per year into this occupation
#SchoolGraduates / yrTop feeder programGrad earnings (1 yr)Grad rateNet priceAcceptance
1All - State Career - Baltimore
Baltimore, MD Private for-profit · 1 feeder programs
241Truck and Bus Driver/Commercial Vehicle Operator and Instructor$43,16060%$21,068
2North American Trade Schools
Baltimore, MD Private for-profit · 1 feeder programs
105Truck and Bus Driver/Commercial Vehicle Operator and Instructor$43,82769%$12,895
3Hagerstown Community College
Hagerstown, MD Public · 1 feeder programs
73Truck and Bus Driver/Commercial Vehicle Operator and Instructor$53,49539%
4College of Southern Maryland
La Plata, MD Public · 1 feeder programs
1Truck and Bus Driver/Commercial Vehicle Operator and Instructor33%

All 4 schools in Maryland

Every school in Maryland with a program that feeds this job, ordered by graduates per year. Earnings are shown for the ranked schools above; open a school profile for the rest.

All schools in Maryland that feed this occupation
SchoolCityControlGraduates / yrFeeder programs
All - State Career - BaltimoreBaltimorePrivate for-profit2411
North American Trade SchoolsBaltimorePrivate for-profit1051
Hagerstown Community CollegeHagerstownPublic731
College of Southern MarylandLa PlataPublic11

What bus drivers, transit and intercity earn in Maryland

What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.

Median annual in Maryland
$65,220
Mean annual
$67,990
Jobs in state
4,890
What the range looks like
10th pct$46,770Median$65,22090th pct$92,320
Versus the national median
+10.4%

U.S. median $59,050. Maryland pays above the national figure.

Job concentration
1.73×

Concentrated here: Maryland employs more of this job per worker than the U.S. average.

Metro areas in Maryland

Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD
$57,800median
2,420 jobs
Hagerstown-Martinsburg, MD-WV
$44,810median
100 jobs

Job outlook

Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.

Projected growth 2024–34
+4.3%
About as fast as average
Openings per year
20,900
new jobs plus replacements
Employment change
6,800
158,800 → 165,600
Typical entry education
High school diploma or equivalent
Plus moderate-term on-the-job training

Growth and openings are national. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish employment projections at state level, so these figures describe the occupation across the whole U.S., not this state alone.

How to get in

The full skills, tools, and day-to-day breakdown lives on the national Bus Drivers, Transit and Intercity page.

How to become a Bus Driver

Job zone 2 of 5 · SVP Below 6.0
Typical entry education
High school diploma or equivalent
On-the-job training
Moderate-term on-the-job training

Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not.

Some occupations may need little or no previous experience; others require several months to a year of experience. For example, landscaping and groundskeeping workers might require very little training or previous experience, while agricultural equipment operators can benefit from on-the job training.

Ranges from a few days to one year of on-the-job training.

Top skills

Active ListeningCritical ThinkingMonitoringSpeakingReading ComprehensionActive Learning

The same job in other states

Where else this occupation employs the most people, and what it pays there.

Related careers in Maryland

Every major mapped to this job

The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.

All 1 majors mapped to Bus Drivers, Transit and Intercity1 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
  • 49.0205Truck and Bus Driver/Commercial Vehicle Operator and Instructor

Common questions

Answers for people weighing bus drivers, transit and intercity programs in Maryland.

What degree do you need to become a Bus Driver?+

High school diploma or equivalent is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Truck and Bus Driver/Commercial Vehicle Operator and Instructor, which awarded 420 degrees in Maryland in 2024-25, 100.0% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.

Which college majors lead to becoming a Bus Driver?+

The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 1 programs to this occupation. The largest are Ground Transportation. Together they graduate about 420 people a year in Maryland.

How much do bus drivers, transit and intercity earn in Maryland?+

The median is $65,220 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). That is 10.4% above the U.S. median of $59,050. This is pay for people already working in the occupation, not the same thing as graduate earnings one year after finishing a degree.

Is demand for bus drivers, transit and intercity growing?+

BLS projects a +4.3% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, about as fast as average, with roughly 20,900 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.

How many schools offer programs for this career in Maryland?+

4 institutions in Maryland reported graduates from at least one of the 1 programs that feed this occupation in IPEDS 2024-25. Rankings on this page use graduates per year, because the federal data publishes no enrollment count by program.

What other job titles do bus drivers, transit and intercity work under?+

Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Bus Driver, Bus Operator, Transit Bus Driver, Motor Coach Operator among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 53-3052.

Bus Drivers, Transit and Intercity in other statesGeorgiaTexasCaliforniaPennsylvaniaIllinoisUtahConnecticutOhio

About the data on this page

Rankings use IPEDS completions 2024–25, degrees awarded per year. That is the closest federal measure of how many people a program puts into a career, because no federal dataset publishes enrollment by program. Wages and employment come from BLS OEWS May 2025, growth and openings from BLS Employment Projections 2024-34, and which majors lead to which jobs from the NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. Occupation descriptions, tasks, skills and tools are O*NET 30.3 (CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor/ETA).

  • BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics

    May 2025

    Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.

  • BLS Employment Projections

    2024–34

    Projected growth, annual openings and typical entry-level education.

  • IPEDS Completions

    2024-25 (provisional)

    Graduates per year by program and institution — the ranking metric.

  • College Scorecard, Field of Study

    2020-21 cohorts

    Median graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.

  • Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes

    latest available

    Graduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.

  • NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk

    CIP 2020 / SOC 2018

    Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.

  • O*NET Database 30.3

    30.3

    Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.

    Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA

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