The highest-paying majors are easy to list and easy to misread. The figures below come from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which reports median wages by major for full-time workers whose highest degree is a bachelor’s, along with unemployment and underemployment for recent graduates. A major that sends most students to graduate school, or into fields that pay well only later, can look worse here than it is. This guide gives the full top 20, the lowest-paying majors and why, employer salary projections for the Class of 2026, and what the numbers mean for choosing a college and a major.
What Are the Highest-Paying College Majors?
| Rank | Major | Early-career median wage (22 to 27) | Mid-career median wage (35 to 45) | Unemployment, recent graduates | Underemployment, recent graduates |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Computer Engineering | $90,000 | $131,000 | 7.8% | 15.8% |
| 2 | Computer Science | $87,000 | $120,000 | 7.0% | 19.1% |
| 3 | Chemical Engineering | $85,000 | $135,000 | 4.7% | 17.9% |
| 4 | Aerospace Engineering | $85,000 | $130,000 | 2.2% | 14.7% |
| 5 | Industrial Engineering | $83,000 | $100,000 | 4.2% | 31.7% |
| 6 | Electrical Engineering | $82,000 | $123,000 | 3.2% | 21.1% |
| 7 | Mechanical Engineering | $80,000 | $120,000 | 4.4% | 20.1% |
| 8 | Construction Services | $75,000 | $120,000 | 2.2% | 17.9% |
| 9 | Civil Engineering | $75,000 | $115,000 | 2.3% | 15.6% |
| 10 | General Engineering | $75,000 | $105,000 | 4.5% | 31.1% |
| 11 | Miscellaneous Engineering | $75,000 | $105,000 | 3.7% | 26.4% |
| 12 | Economics | $72,000 | $115,000 | 3.5% | 33.1% |
| 13 | Business Analytics | $72,000 | $109,000 | 5.0% | 28.7% |
| 14 | Finance | $70,000 | $112,000 | 2.8% | 27.8% |
| 15 | Mathematics | $70,000 | $100,000 | 5.8% | 26.2% |
| 16 | Nursing | $70,000 | $87,000 | 2.1% | 12.8% |
| 17 | Accounting | $68,000 | $97,000 | 2.6% | 21.2% |
| 18 | Physics | $67,000 | $105,000 | 6.6% | 29.1% |
| 19 | Information Systems and Management | $67,000 | $100,000 | 6.0% | 25.6% |
| 20 | Engineering Technologies | $65,000 | $104,000 | 1.7% | 44.4% |
Eight of the top 10 are engineering fields, and computer engineering and computer science sit at the top. Outside engineering and computing, construction services pays the most at $75,000 early in a career, followed by economics and business analytics at $72,000 and finance, mathematics and nursing at $70,000. Guides to choosing a college for many of these fields are linked in the table and collected on our best colleges by major hub.
Which Majors Pay the Most at Mid-Career?
Among the 20 majors with the highest starting pay, chemical engineering leads at mid-career with a median of $135,000, followed by computer engineering ($131,000), aerospace engineering ($130,000), electrical engineering ($123,000), and computer science, mechanical engineering and construction services at $120,000. Economics rises to $115,000 and finance to $112,000 by mid-career, gains of about 60% over their early-career medians, among the largest in the top 20. Nursing, by contrast, rises less, from $70,000 to $87,000.
Which College Majors Pay the Least?
The lowest early-career medians in the New York Fed data are pharmacy ($40,000), theology and religion ($41,600), social services ($43,000) and performing arts ($44,000), followed by ten majors tied at $45,000, including biology, psychology, art history, fine arts, anthropology, and elementary and early childhood education. Pharmacy’s place at the bottom is an artifact of the method: the wages count only workers whose highest degree is a bachelor’s, and 67.4% of pharmacy majors hold a graduate degree, most of them the PharmD that pharmacists need. Biology and psychology are affected the same way, since many graduates go on to medical, graduate or professional school.
For all majors together, the early-career median is $58,000 and the mid-career median $87,000, and 4.2% of recent graduates were unemployed in the 2024 outcomes-by-major data. The New York Fed’s more current quarterly figure for recent graduates was higher, about 5.6% in the second quarter of 2026 (New York Fed).
Do the Highest-Paying Majors Have Low Unemployment?
Not always. Computer engineering (7.8%) and computer science (7.0%) had the highest unemployment rates among the top 20, followed by physics (6.6%), information systems (6.0%) and mathematics (5.8%), all above the 4.2% for recent graduates overall in the same data. The lowest unemployment among high-paying majors was in engineering technologies (1.7%), nursing (2.1%), aerospace engineering and construction services (2.2%) and civil engineering (2.3%). Underemployment tells another part of the story: about a third of recent economics graduates (33.1%) worked in jobs that do not usually require a degree, against 12.8% in nursing and 14.7% in aerospace engineering.
What Starting Salaries Do Employers Expect for the Class of 2026?
Employers surveyed by the National Association of Colleges and Employers in late 2025 projected the following average starting salaries for Class of 2026 bachelor’s graduates (NACE Winter 2026 Salary Survey):
| Broad field | Projected average starting salary, Class of 2026 | Change from Class of 2025 projection |
|---|---|---|
| Computer sciences | $81,535 | +6.9% |
| Engineering | $81,198 | +3.1% |
| Mathematics and statistics | $74,184 | +6.4% |
| Business | $68,873 | +5.5% |
| Agriculture and natural resources | $67,154 | +6.4% |
| Social sciences | $66,155 | -1.7% |
| Communications | $63,767 | +5.7% |
NACE described computer sciences as the highest-paid category of majors (NACE), and social sciences as the only category with a lower projection than the year before (NACE Winter 2026 Salary Survey).
Which Jobs Pay the Most for College Graduates?
| Occupation | Median annual wage, May 2025 | Typical entry-level education | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Petroleum engineers | $144,910 | Bachelor’s | BLS |
| Software developers | $135,980 | Bachelor’s | BLS |
| Actuaries | $130,000 | Bachelor’s | BLS |
| Economists | $124,720 | Master’s | BLS |
| Financial analysts | $103,570 | Bachelor’s | BLS |
| Registered nurses | $97,550 | Bachelor’s | BLS |
Several of the best-paid occupations open directly from a bachelor’s degree, including petroleum engineering, software development and actuarial work. Economists typically need a master’s degree, which is one reason economics majors who stop at a bachelor’s earn less than the occupation’s median suggests.
What Are the Most Popular College Majors?
Business is the most common bachelor’s degree by far: 375,418 of the 2,015,035 bachelor’s degrees awarded in 2021-22 (a category that NCES counts together with culinary, entertainment and personal services), followed by health professions (263,765), social sciences and history (151,109), biological and biomedical sciences (131,462), psychology (129,609), engineering (123,017) and computer and information sciences (108,503) (NCES Digest, Table 322.10). Popularity and pay overlap only partly: engineering and computing pay the most but award far fewer degrees than business.
Should Students Choose a Major Based on Salary?
Salary data helps, but it describes the average graduate, not a particular student. A student who is strong in mathematics and enjoys building things will likely do well in engineering; the same student forced into finance may not. The spread within a major is also wide, and where a student studies and what they do with internships matters as much as the field.
Oriel Admissions helps students test an intended major in high school, through coursework, research and summer programs, before it shapes the college list. Selective colleges also read an intended major as part of the application; our guide to intended major strategy explains how, and our guide to college acceptance rates by major covers programs that admit by major.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Highest-Paying Majors
Computer engineering, with a median of $90,000 for graduates aged 22 to 27 in the New York Fed data. Chemical engineering pays the most at mid-career, with a median of $135,000 for graduates aged 35 to 45.
Computer science ($87,000 early-career median), construction services ($75,000), economics ($72,000), business analytics ($72,000), finance ($70,000), mathematics ($70,000) and nursing ($70,000).
In the New York Fed data, pharmacy, theology and religion, social services and performing arts have the lowest early-career medians. Pharmacy is low only because the data counts workers without a graduate degree, and most pharmacists hold a PharmD.
The median for four-year college graduates aged 22 to 27 was $58,000 across all majors, and $87,000 for graduates aged 35 to 45, in the New York Fed outcomes-by-major data.
It remains one of the highest-paying majors, at an $87,000 early-career median, but recent computer science graduates also had a 7.0% unemployment rate, among the highest of any well-paid major.
Yes. Outside engineering and computing, economics ties business analytics at $72,000, behind only construction services, and rises to $115,000 at mid-career, though a third of recent graduates were underemployed.
Employers surveyed by NACE projected averages of $81,535 for computer sciences, $81,198 for engineering and $68,873 for business. NACE did not publish an overall projection for the Class of 2026.
Salary is one input. Oriel Admissions advises testing an intended major in high school first, since fit and ability affect earnings as much as the field does.
Sources: Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Labor Market for Recent College Graduates, NACE Winter 2026 Salary Survey, NACE press release, NCES Digest Table 322.10, Census Bureau, American Community Survey, BLS petroleum engineers, BLS software developers, BLS actuaries, BLS economists, BLS financial analysts, BLS registered nurses
About Oriel Admissions
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