Analyze evidence in a crime laboratory and then defend your findings under cross examination.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Good for a wall or a guidance counsellor.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$72,060
Lower tenth
$48,250
Top tenth
$117,250
The national median is $72,060 a year and the bottom tenth start near $48,250. The $117,250 top tenth is mostly federal laboratories and laboratory supervisors. Pay is set by public salary schedules, so it is predictable and it is not negotiable.
$48,000 to $60,000
Trainee analyst at a state or city crime laboratory
City and county labs pay less than state labs, and state labs pay less than federal. Where you work matters more to your income than how good you are at the science.
You will testify
Under oath, and under attack
Analysts are called as expert witnesses and a defense attorney's job is to find holes in your work. Some agencies pay overtime for court appearances on your days off.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is two years at a community college then a transfer into an in state public science degree. The high end is that degree paid at full in state rates plus a master's in forensic science, which is often what separates candidates for a small number of laboratory jobs. The background investigation costs nothing, but it includes a polygraph interview and a full drug history at many agencies, so an honest look at your own past matters as much as the money. Government laboratory work counts toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness, which matters if you borrow for the master's.
File the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) for Pell Grants and federal loans. Working in a government laboratory can count toward the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which matters if you borrow for a master's degree.
A government pension
Most crime labs are state, county or federal agencies with real retirement plans.
Health insurance and paid leave that grows with service
Standard public sector terms.
Paid training and proficiency testing
Labs pay for your certifications and the regular tests that keep them valid.
Job security
Crime does not track the economy, and accredited labs are slow to shrink.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
A hard science degree first, then a long hiring process, then a year of training inside the lab.
High school diploma
Grade 12
Chemistry and biology are the two that decide whether this path is open to you. Keep your record clean, because every lab runs a deep background check.
Bachelor's degree
4 years
Forensic science, chemistry or biology. A chemistry degree is often the safer choice, because it opens laboratory work everywhere if crime labs do not hire that year.
Internship in a laboratory
Summers
Crime labs and medical examiner offices take a small number of interns. It is the single strongest thing on an application.
Apply and clear the background
Application, written test, panel interview, drug history, and at many agencies a polygraph. Expect months, and expect competition.
In-house training and a competency test
6 to 18 months
New analysts do not touch real casework alone. You work under a trainer through a written program and pass a competency test before your results go to court.
Chemistry
Drug analysis and toxicology, the two biggest sections in most labs, are chemistry.
Biology
DNA work is molecular biology and it is the section that grows fastest.
Statistics
Reporting the strength of a match is a probability statement, and courts are getting stricter about it.
English and debate
You will explain your work to twelve people who have no science background while a lawyer tries to unpick it.
No state issues a forensic scientist license. What governs the field is accreditation. University programs are accredited by FEPAC (the Forensic Science Education Programs Accreditation Commission), which runs through the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, and hiring managers look for it. Examiners can earn voluntary certification from a professional board in their own discipline once they have experience, and labs increasingly expect it. Standards for the work itself come largely from NIST (the National Institute of Standards and Technology), which has published more than 200 forensic standards on a public registry.
University of Central Florida
Runs an accredited Bachelor of Science in Forensic Science with separate chemistry and biochemistry tracks, and says it is the second oldest such program in the country, dating to 1974.
Accredited forensic science programs elsewhere
A few dozen exist across the country at bachelor's and master's level. Check the accreditation list before you apply anywhere.
A straight chemistry or biology degree
Widely accepted by crime labs, and it leaves you employable if you change your mind.
Master's programs
Common for DNA analysts and often what gets a candidate hired when a single job draws hundreds of applications.
Things you don't need, but that help.
DNA analysis
The biggest and fastest growing section, and the one most likely to need a master's degree.
Toxicology
Drugs and alcohol in blood, tissue and breath. Heavy chemistry and constant casework.
Firearms and tool marks
Comparison work, long training, and the discipline most challenged in court.
Digital forensics
Phones and computers. Growing faster than any traditional section and short of people.
A spotless personal record
Past drug use, unpaid debts and an untruth on the application end candidacies. The background check is deep and honest answers matter more than clean ones.
Laboratory instrument experience
Any undergraduate research using chromatography or spectroscopy translates directly.
Willingness to relocate
There are far more forensic science graduates each year than crime lab openings, and the openings are where they are.
Court observation
Sit in on a real trial. It will show you what the job's hardest hour actually looks like.
Forensic scientists mostly work in a laboratory with evidence that someone else collected. Crime scene investigators go to the scene, photograph it, and collect that evidence. At some agencies scene work is done by sworn police officers, at others by civilian technicians, and the qualifications and pay are different from lab work. If the part you want is the scene tape and the camera, look at crime scene technician postings rather than analyst postings.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Casework, in a queue. You sign out evidence from a secure store, document its condition, run the analysis your section does, and write a report that will be read by prosecutors and defense lawyers. Everything you touch is logged, because a broken chain of custody destroys a case. Some weeks you are in a courthouse hallway for a day waiting to be called and never are. The backlog is always there, and everyone wants their case first.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Results take weeks, not an ad break. Analysts do not interview suspects, do not carry guns and usually do not visit scenes. Juries who expect otherwise are a known problem that prosecutors now plan around.
A major national review found that several long-accepted comparison disciplines had weaker scientific backing than courts assumed. The federal standards agency now runs a committee structure and a public registry of more than 200 forensic standards in response.
The American Academy of Forensic Sciences has more than 6,500 members split across twelve sections, including anthropology, odontology, questioned documents and digital evidence. Teeth, handwriting and bones are all forensic science.
A perfect analysis is worthless if the paperwork showing who held the sample and when has a gap in it. Documentation, not instruments, is the thing new analysts most often get wrong.
Last checked September 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in United States dollars, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data and published pay scales. They vary by state, employer and experience. Tuition is for in-state students at public schools unless the card says otherwise.