The 10 Highest-Paying College Majors (and 5 That Might Surprise You)
Everyone publishes salary-by-major lists. This one shows why the school you attend matters just as much.
Every year, dozens of websites publish "highest-paying college majors" lists. They rank fields by salary, slap some BLS data into a table, and call it a day.
The problem? Those lists use national averages — a single number for every computer science graduate in America, whether they attended MIT or a regional community college. That's like saying "the average house in America costs $350,000" and expecting it to help you shop in San Francisco or rural Kansas.
This list is different. We queried our own database — built from U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard data covering 15,000+ programs at 1,300+ schools — to find out what graduates of specific programs at specific schools actually earn four years after finishing their degree. And we'll show you why the school you choose within a major matters just as much as the major itself.
The top 10 highest-paying bachelor's degree fields
These are the ten fields with the highest median earnings four years after graduation, based on College Scorecard data across 1,300+ institutions. "Median" means the middle graduate — half earn more, half earn less.
| Rank | Field of Study | Median Earnings (4 yrs out) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Engineering | $83,800 |
| 2 | Computer & Information Sciences | $78,800 |
| 3 | Engineering Technologies | $74,300 |
| 4 | Transportation & Materials Moving | $67,400 |
| 5 | Mathematics & Statistics | $63,300 |
| 6 | Health Professions | $61,300 |
| 7 | Business, Management & Marketing | $58,900 |
| 8 | Architecture | $58,500 |
| 9 | Physical Sciences | $55,600 |
| 10 | Social Sciences | $49,900 |
Source: VestedGrad analysis of U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard data. Figures are the median of program-level median earnings across all bachelor's degree programs in each field, measured 4 years post-graduation.
Engineering takes the top spot at $83,800 — nearly $34,000 more than Social Sciences at the bottom of the top 10. Computer & Information Sciences follows closely at $78,800, and Engineering Technologies (programs like construction management, manufacturing engineering, and industrial technology) comes in third at $74,300.
But here's the first surprise: Transportation & Materials Moving at #4 with $67,400. This CIP category includes logistics management, aviation, and supply chain programs — fields most parents have never heard of that quietly produce graduates earning more than math and business majors.
Also worth noting: every field in this top 10 clears $49,000 four years after graduation. The gap between #1 and #10 is significant ($34,000/year), but even the bottom of this list puts graduates well above the national median for all workers.
The table is also missing some fields you might expect. Biology ($26 — Biological & Biomedical Sciences), Psychology ($42), Education ($13), English ($23), and Visual & Performing Arts ($50) didn't make the top 10. That doesn't mean those degrees are worthless — but their national medians are lower, and the payoff depends much more heavily on the specific school and the student's career path after graduation.
5 fields that earn more than you'd expect
These won't top any "highest-paying majors" list because their overall averages are moderate. But at the right school, graduates in these fields earn salaries that rival several top-10 entries.
1. Construction Management (within Engineering Technologies)
Median earnings at top programs: $62,000–$75,000 four years out. Construction managers are in enormous demand and chronically undersupplied. The field has a hands-on reputation that keeps competition low, but a bachelor's degree in construction management from a strong program leads to project management and superintendent roles that pay well and grow fast. Engineering Technologies as a whole ranks #3 on our list largely because of programs like this.
2. Health Informatics (within Health Professions)
Median earnings at top programs: $58,000–$70,000. This niche sits at the intersection of healthcare and technology. As hospitals digitize, they need people who understand both clinical workflows and data systems. The field barely existed a decade ago but has quietly become one of the best-paying corners of the health sciences — which as a category ranks #6 with a $61,300 median.
3. Industrial & Organizational Psychology
Median earnings at top programs: $55,000–$65,000. Regular psychology comes in well below the top 10 nationally. But I/O psychology — the subfield focused on workplace productivity, hiring, and organizational design — punches well above its weight. Many graduates go into HR analytics and consulting, where demand is strong.
4. Homeland Security & Criminal Justice Administration
Median earnings at top programs: $52,000–$64,000. The broader Homeland Security & Law Enforcement category (CIP 43) didn't make our top 10, but specific administration and management programs within it produce graduates who move quickly into supervisory roles in federal, state, and private security organizations.
5. Agriculture Operations & Related Sciences
Median earnings at top programs: $50,000–$62,000. Nobody's parents dream of their kid majoring in agriculture. But ag-tech, farm management, and agricultural economics graduates from strong land-grant universities routinely land solid mid-five-figure salaries in a field with very low unemployment. The combination of reasonable tuition (many ag programs are at affordable state schools) and strong earnings makes the value equation very favorable.
The catch: the same major pays very differently at different schools
Here's the part most "highest-paying majors" articles leave out entirely. Within every single field on this list, there's a massive range in what graduates actually earn — and the school is a huge part of the reason.
| Major | 25th Percentile School | Median School | 75th Percentile School |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engineering | $58,000 | $83,800 | $108,000 |
| Computer Science | $52,000 | $78,800 | $105,000 |
| Business (all) | $40,000 | $58,900 | $76,000 |
| Health Professions | $44,000 | $61,300 | $74,000 |
| Social Sciences | $34,000 | $49,900 | $66,000 |
| Visual & Performing Arts | $24,000 | $32,000 | $44,000 |
Median column reflects VestedGrad's actual database medians. 25th and 75th percentile figures are estimated from the distribution of program-level earnings across all schools in each field. These are not individual salaries — they're median earnings at different schools offering the same major.
Look at engineering: the gap between a 25th-percentile and 75th-percentile school is $50,000 per year. Over a decade, that's half a million dollars. The school you attend within your chosen major can matter as much as the major itself.
This is why national averages are dangerous. A student who picks computer science "because it pays well" but attends a school with weak industry connections and low graduate earnings may end up worse off than someone who studied nursing at a well-placed regional university.
Why "just pick STEM" is oversimplified
The advice you hear everywhere — "major in STEM and you'll be fine" — contains a kernel of truth wrapped in a dangerous oversimplification.
Yes, the top of the earnings ladder is dominated by STEM. But STEM is not one thing. Computer science and electrical engineering sit at the top. Biology and environmental science sit closer to the middle. And within every STEM field, outcomes vary enormously by school, by region, and by the specific subfield.
Meanwhile, some non-STEM paths — nursing, finance, accounting, supply chain management — produce reliably strong earners with less of the extreme school-to-school variation that characterizes engineering and CS.
The best approach isn't "pick the highest-paying major." It's "find the intersection of what your kid is good at, what they can tolerate studying for four years, and what leads to earnings that justify the cost." A student who picks engineering because the salary table told them to, then struggles through the coursework and switches to an undeclared major in year three, has not made a good investment.
How to use this information
Don't pick a major based on a national salary average. Look at earnings for the specific programs at the schools your student is considering. A $78,000 national median for CS is meaningless if the program they'd attend produces $48,000 graduates.
Do check the debt-to-earnings ratio. A high-paying major with equally high debt isn't necessarily a good deal. The ratio matters more than either number alone. Anything under 0.50 (total debt is less than half of annual earnings) is generally considered healthy.
Don't ignore the "surprise" fields. Construction management, health informatics, and supply chain aren't glamorous. But they have strong earnings, low competition, and reasonable tuition — a combination that often produces better value than a prestigious-sounding major at an expensive school.
Do compare programs, not just fields. VestedGrad lets you browse every program in our database filtered by field of study, state, and earnings level. You can see exactly what graduates of a specific program at a specific school earn — not a national average, but the real number reported to the Department of Education.
Browse programs by field of study and see earnings for each school →
This article is part of VestedGrad's series on making data-driven college decisions. Previously: Is College Still Worth It in 2026? and Sticker Price vs. What You'll Actually Pay.