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.
Which occupations relate to a course or qualification?
Search official NCES Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) descriptions or occupation titles. The 2020 CIP to 2018 SOC crosswalk identifies educational preparation relationships, not graduate job-placement statistics.
Official CIP–SOC data has not been imported by the site administrator. Career examples remain available under Highest-paying degrees, but this directory will not invent program-to-occupation links.
The NCES/BLS official 2020 CIP–2018 SOC crosswalk identifies potential educational preparation links, not verified career outcomes, job vacancies, probability of employment or qualification for a regulated profession. A course may relate to several jobs; some careers require additional experience, examinations or licenses. Job-search links search HPJ's own indexed opportunities and may return zero results. No third-party salary-site scraping is involved.
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:
- Federal Reserve Bank of New York – College-major earnings and labor-market outcomes.
- U.S. Census Bureau – Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes graduate earnings data.
- U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard – Educational costs, student debt and available graduate earnings information.
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.