Best degree programs for Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels, ranked by enrollment
1 college programs and 10 schools train Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels. Compare graduates per year, cost and pay, $92,460 median wage, 36,850 U.S. jobs. Federal data.
1 college programs at 10 schools train captains, mates, and pilots of water vessels, graduating 501 people a year (IPEDS completions). The largest is Marine Science/Merchant Marine Officer. The job pays a median of $92,460 (BLS OEWS May 2025).
About captains, mates, and pilots of water vessels
Command or supervise operations of ships and water vessels, such as tugboats and ferryboats. Required to hold license issued by U.S. Coast Guard.
Fields of study that lead to this job
Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level, the tier our program pages are built on. Numbers are graduates per year.
1 degree programs that lead to this job
Ranked by graduates per year (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are College Scorecard figures for people who finished the program, reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. That is a different measurement from the occupation-wide wages further down this page.
| # | Program | Graduates / yr | Share of pipeline | Schools | Grad earnings (1 yr) | Median debt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marine Science/Merchant Marine Officermain feeder CIP 49.0309 | 501 | 100.0% | 10 | $74,822 | $24,686 |
Top 10 schools by graduates into this job
Counting every feeder program a school offers, not just its largest one.
What captains, mates, and pilots of water vessels earn
What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.
Top-paying states
Top-paying metro areas
Job outlook
Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.
Where the jobs are, state by state
Pick a state for in-state pay, the schools there, and the programs they run.
| State | Median pay | Jobs | Concentration | Schools | Graduates / yr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Yorklimited | $104,800 | 1,930 | 0.84× | 2 | 191 |
| Texaslimited | $111,390 | 3,400 | 1.02× | 2 | 80 |
| Mainelimited | $72,770 | 360 | 2.37× | 1 | 66 |
| Californialimited | $110,090 | 2,420 | 0.56× | 1 | 64 |
| Massachusettslimited | $77,950 | 650 | 0.75× | 1 | 51 |
| Michiganlimited | $53,590 | 640 | 0.61× | 1 | 35 |
| Washingtonlimited | $103,730 | 1,560 | 1.86× | 1 | 12 |
| Oregonlimited | $97,050 | 350 | 0.75× | 1 | 2 |
Skills and tools
From O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupational database. Importance is a 1 to 5 scale.
What they do day to day
- Direct courses and speeds of ships, based on specialized knowledge of local winds, weather, water depths, tides, currents, and hazards.
- Prevent ships under navigational control from engaging in unsafe operations.
- Serve as a vessel's docking master upon arrival at a port or at a berth.
- Consult maps, charts, weather reports, or navigation equipment to determine and direct ship movements.
- Steer and operate vessels, using radios, depth finders, radars, lights, buoys, or lighthouses.
- Operate ship-to-shore radios to exchange information needed for ship operations.
- Dock or undock vessels, sometimes maneuvering through narrow spaces, such as locks.
- Stand watches on vessels during specified periods while vessels are under way.
Skills
- Monitoring3.5
- Speaking3.5
- Active Listening3.4
- Critical Thinking3.4
- Reading Comprehension3.3
- Writing3.1
- Active Learning3.1
- Learning Strategies2.9
Knowledge areas
- Transportation4.1
- Public Safety and Security3.8
- Mechanical3.4
- Law and Government3.4
- English Language3.3
- Geography3.3
Abilities
- Oral Expression3.9
- Oral Comprehension3.9
- Problem Sensitivity3.8
- Deductive Reasoning3.8
- Far Vision3.8
- Spatial Orientation3.8
Core activities
- Operating Vehicles, Mechanized Devices, or Equipment4.5
- Inspecting Equipment, Structures, or Materials4.4
- Identifying Objects, Actions, and Events4.2
- Making Decisions and Solving Problems4.2
- Controlling Machines and Processes4.1
- Getting Information4.1
Tools and technology
hotmarks an O*NET hot technologyHow to get in
How to become a Captain
Job zone 3 of 5 · SVP 6.0 to < 7.0- Typical entry education
- Postsecondary nondegree award
- Work experience needed
- Less than 5 years
Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.
Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.
Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.
Every major mapped to this job
The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.
All 2 majors mapped to Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels1 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
- 49.0303Commercial Fishing(no graduates reported)
- 49.0309Marine Science/Merchant Marine Officer
Related careers
Jobs O*NET identifies as close to this one, with their own pay and outlook.
Common questions
What degree do you need to become a Captain?+
Postsecondary nondegree award is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Marine Science/Merchant Marine Officer, which awarded 501 degrees in 2024-25, 100.0% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.
Which college majors lead to becoming a Captain?+
The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 1 programs to this occupation. The largest are Marine Transportation. Together they graduate about 501 people a year.
How much do captains, mates, and pilots of water vessels earn?+
The median is $92,460 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). The middle range runs from $47,420 at the 10th percentile to $170,640 at the 90th. 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 captains, mates, and pilots of water vessels growing?+
BLS projects a +0.5% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, little or no change, with roughly 4,300 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.
How many schools offer programs for this career?+
10 institutions 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 captains, mates, and pilots of water vessels work under?+
Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Mate, Captain, First Mate, Boat Captain among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 53-5021.
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 2025Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.
BLS Employment Projections
2024–34Projected 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 cohortsMedian graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.
Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes
latest availableGraduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.
NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk
CIP 2020 / SOC 2018Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.
O*NET Database 30.3
30.3Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.
Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA
Explore every U.S. college in one conversation
Clema turns plain-language questions into sourced answers across every U.S. institution — earnings, aid, acceptance, graduation, safety, and athletics from IPEDS, College Scorecard, and 10+ federal datasets, built in.
Free for teams up to 3 · No credit card