You patrol the highways and the rural areas no town police department covers. The state hires you first and trains you at its own academy, paid.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Counsellors: send it to a student from your own email in one click.
The median pay is about $76,210 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $47,510 at the lower end to about $115,120 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
2 to 4 years after high school, on the usual route.
From nothing up to about $48,000, depending on the route, for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
Yes. It is a regulated job, so you need a license or registration before you can work.
Moderate demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median for the group
$76,210
Bottom tenth
$47,510
Top tenth
$115,120
The federal wage survey groups state troopers with all Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officers, where the national median is $76,210 a year: the bottom tenth earn $47,510 or less and the top tenth $115,120 or more (2025 federal wage survey).
$73,087 a year
Pennsylvania State Police starting trooper base salary after the academy, rising to $103,319 in the fifth year
Pennsylvania cadets are state employees and paid while they train. Pay varies a lot between states. But the pattern is the same everywhere: the state employs you from the first day of the academy, feeds you, houses you and issues your equipment.
$118,880 a year
The median for patrol officers in California, the highest of any state
Washington state is next at $102,080 and Illinois at $100,520. The lowest is Mississippi, at $46,140. State medians from the 2025 federal wage survey, for all patrol officers, with overtime and court time on top.
Roughly, all in
Nothing to $48,000
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
Applying costs nothing in most states, the academy costs nothing and you are paid a salary while you attend, and the uniform and equipment are issued rather than bought. So the low end is genuinely zero. The high end is a four year criminal justice or related degree at an in-state public university at roughly $12,000 a year, which many states do not require but many troopers hold. The real barrier is not money: it is months of physical preparation before the fitness test, which is where most applicants fail. Government service can qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness if you do borrow.
This career has no tuition at all. If you do take a criminal justice degree first, use an in-state public university and fill in the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), and remember that government service can qualify for PSLF (Public Service Loan Forgiveness).
A real pension
Most state police pension plans let you retire after 20 to 25 years of service, which can mean leaving in your forties with an income.
Health cover
State employee plans, usually covering your family and often continuing into retirement.
Overtime and court time
Paid on top of the base salary, and there is a lot of it.
A take home patrol car
Common in state police agencies, which quietly removes a large monthly cost from your life.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
The state hires you first, then trains you. Everything happens in that order.
High school diploma or GED (General Educational Development certificate)
Grade 12
That is the education floor in most states. Some agencies want college credits or military service instead, and a few require a degree.
Meet the minimums and apply
Age 20 or 21
United States citizenship, a driver's license, no felony record, vision within the agency's standard, and a minimum age. Pennsylvania takes applications at 20 and will not appoint anyone who has reached their 40th birthday.
Get through the selection process
6 to 12 months
Written exam, physical fitness test, background investigation, polygraph in many states, then psychological and medical evaluations. It commonly takes six months to a year.
The academy
4 to 8 months
A live-in, disciplined training school run by the state: law, driving, firearms, defensive tactics, first aid, crash investigation. Usually several months, and you are paid throughout.
Field training, then solo patrol
3 to 6 months
You ride with a training officer who signs off on your decisions before you are turned loose in your own car.
English
Reports are evidence. A badly written report gets a case thrown out, and writing is tested at the academy.
Government and civics
You enforce laws, so you need to know where they come from and what limits you.
Physical education
There is a fitness test to pass before anyone reads your application properly.
Spanish or another second language
Some agencies pay a bonus, and it makes you far more useful on a roadside.
There is no national police license. Each state has a commission, usually called POST (Peace Officer Standards and Training) or something similar, which sets minimum hiring standards, certifies academies and can strip an officer of certification for misconduct. California's version is one of the strictest and best documented. Because these commissions are state level, your certification does not automatically move with you. Transferring to another state normally means at least a shortened academy and re-certification there. Choose the state you want to serve in before you apply.
The background investigation
Investigators talk to former employers, neighbors and family. Lying on the form is worse than most of the things people lie about.
Drug history
Rules vary by state, but recent or heavy use rules you out. Read your target agency's published policy before applying.
Driving record
You are applying to enforce traffic law in a car. A bad record is taken seriously.
Credit and debt
Many agencies review finances, because serious debt is treated as a corruption risk.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Criminal investigation
Moving from patrol into a detective role, working major crimes across the state.
Crash reconstruction
Technical, courtroom heavy work analyzing serious collisions. Highly valued, and it brings a lot of court time.
Canine, aviation or marine units
Small, competitive specialist teams that usually want several years on patrol first.
Instructor roles
Teaching at the academy in firearms, driving or defensive tactics, which also sets up a second career later.
Military service
Often counts in place of college credits, and the academy environment will feel familiar.
A clean online history
Investigators read your accounts. Assume everything you have ever posted will be printed out.
Emergency medical training
You are frequently first on scene at a crash, long before an ambulance.
Real fitness, months early
Not a gym membership. Run the actual test standard for your target agency until you beat it comfortably.
Troopers move up through corporal, sergeant and lieutenant ranks by examination and service. Others move sideways into federal law enforcement, where state police experience is valued and jobs are posted on USAJOBS (the official federal government hiring site). Plenty retire after 25 years, collect a pension in their late forties, and take a second job in corporate security, investigations or teaching. That double income is one of the quiet reasons people take this career.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Roll call at the barracks, check the car and your equipment, then out to your patrol area. Most of the shift is driving, traffic stops and answering calls from the dispatcher. You will work crashes, some of them bad, and be the person who knocks on a door at two in the morning with news nobody wants. There is paperwork after almost every call, and you write it in the car. Shifts rotate, so you will work nights, weekends and holidays, and you will be called to court on days off.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Pennsylvania publishes exact vision standards for cadets: uncorrected vision no worse than 20/70 in the dominant eye and 20/200 in the other, correctable to 20/20 and 20/40, plus normal color vision and depth perception.
Most police jobs have a minimum age, usually 20 or 21. Some state police have a maximum too. Pennsylvania takes applications from age 20, appoints at 21 at the earliest, and will not appoint anyone who has reached their 40th birthday.
About 693,200 people work as police and sheriff's patrol officers (2025). The federal projection has the job growing 3% to 4% to 2035, with about 51,500 openings a year, most of them from officers retiring or leaving.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Police and fire first, then the rest of the field. See every career in law and public safety.
Last checked October 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. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
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