Inside the heart of every student, a battle rages: follow your dreams, or follow the money? The trick, of course, is to find a major that fulfills you and will turn into a lucrative career.
Ultimately, if your main goal is to make money, your best bet is to study engineering, math, and computer science. The top-earning recent grads are all STEM majors, and some are making six figures at their very first job.
For the rest, there are many opportunities in emerging fields related to business and government. If you can find a niche in one of these fields that makes you happy, you’re on track to make a great salary.
Top 10 Majors by Earning Potential
If you’re an engineer or a scientist, you are in luck. According to a recent report from PayScale, the highest-paid graduates are those with engineering majors.
1. Petroleum Engineering - Starting Salary: $93,200 / Mid-Career Salary: $187,300
2. Operations Research & Industrial Engineering - Starting Salary: $84,800 / Mid-Career Salary: $170,400
3. Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (EECS) - Starting Salary: $108,500 / Mid-Career Salary: $159,300
4. Interaction Design - Starting Salary: $68,300 / Mid-Career Salary: $155,800
5. Public Accounting - Starting Salary: $59,800 / Mid-Career Salary: $147,700
6. Operations Research - Starting Salary: $83,500 / Mid-Career Salary: $147,400
7. Applied Economics and Management - Starting Salary: $66,100 / Mid-Career Salary: $146,400
8. Business Computing (BC) - Starting Salary: $73,000 / Mid-Career Salary: $143,600
9. Actuarial Mathematics - Starting Salary: $64,300 / Mid-Career Salary: $143,400
10. Electrical Power Engineering - Starting Salary: $76,100 / Mid-Career Salary: $142,600
Top 10 Non-Science Majors by Earning Potential
If science and math are not your top ambition, you still have plenty of high-paying options, particularly in the realms of business and government. According to a recent report by Indeed, here are the highest paying non-STEM college majors.
1. Accounting – Median Salary: $71,500
2. Architecture – Median Salary: $81,440
3. Area Studies – Median Salary: $77,070
4. Business Management – Median Salary: $105,660
5. Postsecondary Communications – Median Salary: $70,630
6. Construction Management – Median Salary: $82,115
7. East Asian Foreign Language – Median Salary (ESL Teacher): $54,350
8. Economics – Median Salary: $105,020
9. Education– Median Salary: $50,790
10. Finance – Median Salary (Analyst): $81,590
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