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Highest Paying Degrees & Courses

HIGH PAID JOB · EDUCATION RESEARCH

Degree & Course Salary Intelligence

Compare published graduate earnings by major, qualification or institution. Distinguish graduate outcomes from advertised job salaries.

Highest-paying bachelor's degree fields

Official New York Fed by-major catalog · Median annual earnings, USD

73 matching fields. Official dataset retrieved 5 Nov 2026; check source for survey reference year.

  1. 1
    Computer Engineering U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 7.8% · Underemployment: 15.8%
    $90,000/ year
  2. 2
    Computer Science U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 7.0% · Underemployment: 19.1%
    $87,000/ year
  3. 3
    Aerospace Engineering U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 2.2% · Underemployment: 14.7%
    $85,000/ year
  4. 4
    Chemical Engineering U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 4.7% · Underemployment: 17.9%
    $85,000/ year
  5. 5
    Industrial Engineering U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 4.2% · Underemployment: 31.7%
    $83,000/ year
  6. 6
    Electrical Engineering U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 3.2% · Underemployment: 21.1%
    $82,000/ year
  7. 7
    Mechanical Engineering U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 4.4% · Underemployment: 20.1%
    $80,000/ year
  8. 8
    General Engineering U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 4.5% · Underemployment: 31.1%
    $75,000/ year
  9. 9
    Civil Engineering U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 2.3% · Underemployment: 15.6%
    $75,000/ year
  10. 10
    Miscellaneous Engineering U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 3.7% · Underemployment: 26.4%
    $75,000/ year
  11. 11
    Construction Services U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 2.2% · Underemployment: 17.9%
    $75,000/ year
  12. 12
    Economics U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 3.5% · Underemployment: 33.1%
    $72,000/ year
Show 61 more degree fields
  1. 13
    Business Analytics U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 5.0% · Underemployment: 28.7%
    $72,000/ year
  2. 14
    Mathematics U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 5.8% · Underemployment: 26.2%
    $70,000/ year
  3. 15
    Nursing U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 2.1% · Underemployment: 12.8%
    $70,000/ year
  4. 16
    Finance U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 2.8% · Underemployment: 27.8%
    $70,000/ year
  5. 17
    Accounting U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 2.6% · Underemployment: 21.2%
    $68,000/ year
  6. 18
    Information Systems & Management U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 6.0% · Underemployment: 25.6%
    $67,000/ year
  7. 19
    Physics U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 6.6% · Underemployment: 29.1%
    $67,000/ year
  8. 20
    Engineering Technologies U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 1.7% · Underemployment: 44.4%
    $65,000/ year
  9. 21
    International Affairs U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 6.1% · Underemployment: 45.2%
    $64,000/ year
  10. 22
    Medical Technicians U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 6.2% · Underemployment: 47.0%
    $62,000/ year
  11. 23
    Architecture U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 6.8% · Underemployment: 25.7%
    $60,000/ year
  12. 24
    Advertising and Public Relations U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 5.7% · Underemployment: 38.1%
    $60,000/ year
  13. 25
    Miscellaneous Physical Sciences U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 2.5% · Underemployment: 22.5%
    $60,000/ year
  14. 26
    General Business U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 4.3% · Underemployment: 50.4%
    $60,000/ year
  15. 27
    Marketing U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 4.4% · Underemployment: 49.3%
    $60,000/ year
  16. 28
    Agriculture U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 1.4% · Underemployment: 57.1%
    $56,000/ year
  17. 29
    Business Management U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 3.8% · Underemployment: 52.6%
    $56,000/ year
  18. 30
    Public Policy and Law U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 2.2% · Underemployment: 45.5%
    $55,000/ year
  19. 31
    Miscellaneous Technologies U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 3.6% · Underemployment: 49.0%
    $54,000/ year
  20. 32
    Ethnic Studies U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 4.9% · Underemployment: 49.6%
    $52,000/ year
  21. 33
    Communications U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 3.9% · Underemployment: 53.0%
    $52,000/ year
  22. 34
    Biochemistry U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 2.7% · Underemployment: 42.0%
    $52,000/ year
  23. 35
    Interdisciplinary Studies U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 3.9% · Underemployment: 45.2%
    $52,000/ year
  24. 36
    Philosophy U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 5.1% · Underemployment: 47.1%
    $52,000/ year
  25. 37
    Political Science U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 4.5% · Underemployment: 48.7%
    $52,000/ year
  26. 38
    Environmental Studies U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 6.3% · Underemployment: 50.5%
    $50,000/ year
  27. 39
    Mass Media U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 5.2% · Underemployment: 52.1%
    $50,000/ year
  28. 40
    Nutrition Sciences U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 4.5% · Underemployment: 48.3%
    $50,000/ year
  29. 41
    Chemistry U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 4.3% · Underemployment: 42.8%
    $50,000/ year
  30. 42
    Earth Sciences U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 3.8% · Underemployment: 31.4%
    $50,000/ year
  31. 43
    Criminal Justice U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 3.6% · Underemployment: 65.8%
    $50,000/ year
  32. 44
    Geography U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 1.6% · Underemployment: 43.0%
    $50,000/ year
  33. 45
    Commercial Art & Graphic Design U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 5.7% · Underemployment: 37.1%
    $50,000/ year
  34. 46
    Health Services U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 3.8% · Underemployment: 45.1%
    $50,000/ year
  35. 47
    Treatment Therapy U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 2.6% · Underemployment: 39.1%
    $50,000/ year
  36. 48
    Sociology U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 4.6% · Underemployment: 52.0%
    $49,900/ year
  37. 49
    Journalism U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 2.3% · Underemployment: 43.3%
    $49,000/ year
  38. 50
    Miscellaneous Education U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 1.1% · Underemployment: 24.5%
    $48,000/ year
  39. 51
    Foreign Language U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 1.6% · Underemployment: 54.0%
    $48,000/ year
  40. 52
    Family and Consumer Sciences U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 4.3% · Underemployment: 45.6%
    $48,000/ year
  41. 53
    English Language U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 6.1% · Underemployment: 48.5%
    $48,000/ year
  42. 54
    History U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 4.3% · Underemployment: 50.1%
    $47,500/ year
  43. 55
    Animal and Plant Sciences U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 2.5% · Underemployment: 53.5%
    $46,600/ year
  44. 56
    Special Education U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 73.9% · Underemployment: 16.0%
    $46,000/ year
  45. 57
    Miscellaneous Biological Science U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 4.4% · Underemployment: 46.9%
    $46,000/ year
  46. 58
    Secondary Education U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 2.1% · Underemployment: 21.7%
    $45,300/ year
  47. 59
    General Social Sciences U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 2.3% · Underemployment: 38.0%
    $45,200/ year
  48. 60
    General Education U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 2.6% · Underemployment: 28.1%
    $45,000/ year
  49. 61
    Early Childhood Education U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 6.6% · Underemployment: 22.3%
    $45,000/ year
  50. 62
    Elementary Education U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 1.2% · Underemployment: 16.2%
    $45,000/ year
  51. 63
    Liberal Arts U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 3.8% · Underemployment: 54.6%
    $45,000/ year
  52. 64
    Biology U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 4.3% · Underemployment: 51.1%
    $45,000/ year
  53. 65
    Leisure and Hospitality U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 2.7% · Underemployment: 58.1%
    $45,000/ year
  54. 66
    Psychology U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 5.0% · Underemployment: 48.3%
    $45,000/ year
  55. 67
    Anthropology U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 7.9% · Underemployment: 55.3%
    $45,000/ year
  56. 68
    Art History U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 6.7% · Underemployment: 45.3%
    $45,000/ year
  57. 69
    Fine Arts U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 7.7% · Underemployment: 58.9%
    $45,000/ year
  58. 70
    Performing Arts U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 7.0% · Underemployment: 63.9%
    $44,000/ year
  59. 71
    Social Services U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 1.9% · Underemployment: 30.1%
    $43,000/ year
  60. 72
    Theology and Religion U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 3.1% · Underemployment: 47.5%
    $41,600/ year
  61. 73
    Pharmacy U.S. bachelor's major · National median · Unemployment: 5.6% · Underemployment: 30.5%
    $40,000/ year
Compare two or three degree fields side by side

Same New York Fed source and career-stage definitions. Compare published medians and, when provided, employment-context rates. No predicted pay growth or invented return-on-investment score.

Explore careers connected to your degree

Choose a published major to explore reviewed occupational examples and study topics. These are illustrative routes, not graduate placement statistics, verified hiring requirements or a claim that a degree qualifies you for any particular job.

Source: Federal Reserve Bank of New York, The Labor Market for Recent College Graduates. Wage medians cover full-time workers with a bachelor's degree only. Early-career and mid-career results are different age groups, not a salary-growth forecast. Unemployment/underemployment use a different graduate population, and cannot be interpreted as an individual's probability of employment. The New York Fed does not endorse HPJ.

For diplomas, certificates or geographic evidence, open Degrees & certificates. No web-page scraping or estimated salary replacement is used.

Data sources, provenance and limitations

New York Fed: Published major-level median earnings snapshots (early career 22–27, mid-career 35–45). These represent cross-sectional ACS-based statistics for degree fields. The full catalog is an imported publisher CSV only after an administrator performs a verified official download; otherwise nine selected majors appear. The New York Fed does not endorse this product.

U.S. Census PSEO: Official graduate earnings API at 1, 5 and 10 years after graduation, for participating institutions. PSEO figures are published in 2023 dollars; degree levels, cohort selection and suppression must match.

College Scorecard: Official Department of Education API for institution information. Its institution-level earnings must not be labelled earnings for a specific course.

Degree-to-career explorer: Reviewed editorial examples linked to official O*NET occupation profiles. No crosswalk file or job-placement statistics are imported. The HPJ job links prefill its own indexed job-search interface; they do not assert live vacancies, degree suitability or employment outcomes.

All salary figures here are historical published evidence, not current job advertisements, promises, or individual forecasts. No commercial salary-site scraping is used.

Federal Reserve Bank of New York · U.S. Census PSEO · College Scorecard

Which University Degrees and Courses Lead to the Highest Salaries?

Choosing a university degree or professional qualification is one of the most important educational and financial decisions you can make. But which degrees offer the highest salaries? How much do graduates earn after completing their studies? And do higher-paying degrees always provide better long-term career opportunities?

High Paid Job Degree & Course Salary Intelligence helps students, graduates, parents and career changers explore these questions using published U.S. government and Federal Reserve research data.

Compare earnings across college majors, examine early-career and mid-career salary differences, explore graduate employment outcomes and research the potential financial value of educational qualifications.

Explore the Highest-Paying College Majors

Different fields of study can lead to substantially different employment opportunities and earnings. Engineering, computer science, finance, accounting, healthcare and other professional disciplines offer distinct career pathways.

Use the interactive salary comparison tool above to investigate available earnings information for subjects such as:

  • Computer Science: Explore graduate earnings associated with computing and software-related education.
  • Computer Engineering: Investigate earnings for graduates entering computing hardware, systems and related technical careers.
  • Electrical Engineering: Examine salary outcomes associated with electrical and electronic engineering education.
  • Chemical Engineering: Explore graduate earnings in chemical engineering and related technical fields.
  • Mechanical Engineering: Research earnings associated with mechanical engineering qualifications.
  • Finance: Compare financial education outcomes and potential career pathways.
  • Accounting: Explore earnings associated with accounting education and professional finance careers.
  • Nursing: Examine earnings associated with nursing education and healthcare careers.

The availability of particular majors, qualification levels and earnings figures depends on the published source data. Rankings describe the populations measured and should not be interpreted as guaranteed salaries for new graduates.

Compare Early-Career and Mid-Career Salaries

A degree that produces relatively high earnings shortly after graduation may not necessarily deliver the highest earnings later in a person’s career.

High Paid Job helps distinguish between early-career and mid-career earnings where comparable statistics are available.

Early-career earnings provide insight into compensation among younger graduates, while mid-career earnings offer a broader perspective on earning potential among more experienced graduates.

These figures reflect observed outcomes for groups of graduates. They do not represent individual salary progression or guarantee future earnings increases.

Compare Bachelor’s, Master’s, Doctoral Degrees and Certificates

University degrees are not the only educational pathways worth investigating. Depending on the available data, you can also explore earnings associated with certificates, associate degrees, master’s degrees, doctoral qualifications and other recognized educational awards.

The U.S. Census Bureau’s Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes program provides graduate earnings information for participating institutions and supported educational programs.

Where published, its data can help users examine graduate earnings one, five and ten years after completion.

Does a Higher-Paying Degree Offer a Better Return on Investment?

Graduate salary is an important consideration, but it should not be the only factor when selecting a university or educational program.

Tuition fees, student debt, program duration, employment opportunities and personal interests can significantly affect the value of an educational investment.

Where official College Scorecard information is available, High Paid Job allows users to research institutional costs, graduate earnings and selected program-level outcomes.

Consider these factors together rather than selecting a degree based only on the highest advertised or reported salary.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the highest-paying university degrees?

Engineering, computer-related and certain quantitative fields frequently rank highly in U.S. college-major earnings studies. However, rankings change depending on whether they measure recent graduates, experienced graduates or workers with advanced qualifications. Use the comparison tool to examine the available figures and reference periods.

Is computer science one of the highest-paying degrees?

Computer science is among the fields associated with relatively high graduate earnings in published U.S. research. Actual compensation depends on occupation, employer, location, experience and market conditions.

Which is better for earnings: accounting or finance?

Accounting and finance can lead to different career pathways and earnings distributions. Finance graduates may enter investment, banking, corporate finance and related roles, while accounting graduates may pursue financial reporting, auditing, taxation and management accounting. Compare graduate earnings alongside the employment outcomes and qualifications required for each career.

Are master’s degrees always more profitable than bachelor’s degrees?

No. An advanced degree may increase career opportunities or earning potential in some professions, but its financial value depends on the field, tuition costs, study duration, existing qualifications and employment outcomes. Broad averages should not be interpreted as the financial benefit of obtaining an additional degree.

Can I compare salaries from different universities?

Where supported College Scorecard or Census graduate-outcome information is available, users can investigate earnings associated with participating institutions and programs. Data coverage varies, and some results may be unavailable or suppressed to protect privacy.

Where does High Paid Job obtain its degree salary information?

High Paid Job uses supported official datasets and APIs, including published college-major research from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, graduate earnings information from the U.S. Census Bureau and education outcomes from the U.S. Department of Education.

The application does not require unauthorized scraping of commercial salary or university-ranking websites to provide these statistics.

Research Jobs and Occupational Salaries

Graduate earnings and occupational wages measure different things. A degree salary describes outcomes associated with an educational qualification, while an occupational wage describes compensation among workers in a particular profession.

After researching degree outcomes, explore Occupational Salary Intelligence to compare published occupation wages, or visit High Paid Job to search for employment opportunities.

Official Data Sources and Methodology

Degree & Course Salary Intelligence uses supported information from the following official sources:

Important: Reported earnings are historical statistical observations, not salary guarantees or personalized financial forecasts. Data sources may use different populations, earnings definitions, reporting periods and geographic coverage. Some advanced features require configured API access. Users should review original source information before comparing educational programs or making financial decisions.