Which degrees really pay off?
By Jacquelyn Smith
Salary potential shouldn't be the sole thing that attracts you to a major in college — things like passion, interest, and aptitude should also be considered. But it's still nice to know which degrees pay off the fastest. (And we can't blame you for being drawn to those.)
PayScale, the creator of the world's largest compensation database, recently looked at the starting pay for millions of professionals and sorted the results by college major.
Here are the 22 majors with the highest starting salaries:
Salary potential shouldn't be the sole thing that attracts you to a major in college — things like passion, interest, and aptitude should also be considered. But it's still nice to know which degrees pay off the fastest. (And we can't blame you for being drawn to those.)
PayScale, the creator of the world's largest compensation database, recently looked at the starting pay for millions of professionals and sorted the results by college major.
Here are the 22 majors with the highest starting salaries:
22. Business and Information Technology
1/22
Median starting pay: $56,900Median mid-career pay: $99,100
% change from starting to mid-career: +74%
21. Architectural Engineering
2/22
Median starting pay: $57,000Median mid-career pay: $90,400
% change from starting to mid-career: +59%
20. Physics
3/22
Median starting pay: $57,200Median mid-career pay: $105,100
% change from starting to mid-career: +85%
19. Electrical Engineering Technology
4/22
Median starting pay: $58,900Median mid-career pay: $88,200
% change from starting to mid-career: +50%