Average college graduate salary: a data-driven breakdown.
Fact-checkedEvidence snapshot:
- Aerospace Engineering stacks a $49,000 mid-career premium on a $76,000 starting salary.
- Computer majors lock in the top early career salaries at $80,000 straight out of college.
- All STEM degrees above $100K mid-career also lead in starting pay, which signals a payoff from day one to retirement.
- Economics delivers the highest efficiency combo: $110K salary, 3.29 GPA, 14 weekly study hours, and 71% graduation rate.
- Economics leads all majors in ROI at 431 percent, which shows the cleanest leap from student debt to a six-figure income.
- Nutrition Sciences hits a 99.6 percent employment rate, which means nearly everyone gets hired.
- Physics and Computer Science land high salaries but low job placement, which signals a bottleneck at the hiring gate.
What do Aerospace Engineering, Economics, and Nutrition Sciences have in common? Each ranks among the most efficient or financially rewarding degrees of 2025, but for completely different reasons. From $125K mid-career salaries to a 99.6% employment rate, this report unpacks which majors deliver real-world value across income, effort, and job security. Whether you’re choosing a field, analyzing education trends, or writing the next big story, these insights will sharpen your decisions with hard data.
Best-paying majors
- Aerospace Engineering graduates start at $76,000 and gain a $49,000 premium by mid-career.
- Computer-related majors dominate early career pay, all starting at $80,000.
- Education majors show the weakest wage growth, with Special Education rising only $10,000 over a career.
To understand the broader distribution, it’s essential to look at how different majors compare in their early earning power.
Table with average starting salary by major:
| Major | Median wage in early career |
| Aerospace Engineering | 76,000 |
| Computer Engineering | 80,000 |
| Chemical Engineering | 80,000 |
| Electrical Engineering | 78,000 |
| Computer Science | 80,000 |
| Mechanical Engineering | 75,000 |
| Economics | 70,000 |
| Finance | 70,000 |
| Industrial Engineering | 76,000 |
| Miscellaneous Engineering | 70,000 |
| Info. Systems & Management | 65,000 |
| General Engineering | 70,000 |
| Civil Engineering | 71,000 |
| Mathematics | 65,000 |
| Physics | 70,000 |
| Construction Services | 70,000 |
| Business Analytics | 70,000 |
| International Affairs | 60,000 |
| Engineering Technologies | 60,000 |
| Miscellaneous Physical Sciences | 58,000 |
| Miscellaneous Technologies | 60,000 |
| Chemistry | 55,000 |
| Political Science | 54,000 |
| General Business | 60,000 |
| Marketing | 57,000 |
| Advertising and PR | 56,000 |
| Biochemistry | 52,000 |
| Earth Sciences | 50,000 |
| Accounting | 60,000 |
| Communications | 52,000 |
| Journalism | 50,000 |
| Nursing | 65,000 |
| Ethnic Studies | 45,000 |
| Overall | 55,000 |
| Architecture | 52,000 |
| Mass Media | 49,000 |
| Biology | 47,000 |
| Treatment Therapy | 46,900 |
| Business Management | 55,000 |
| Geography | 48,600 |
| History | 45,000 |
| Medical Technicians | 55,000 |
| Pharmacy | 55,000 |
| Agriculture | 50,000 |
| Environmental Studies | 46,700 |
| Miscellaneous Biological Science | 42,000 |
| Nutrition Sciences | 54,000 |
| Criminal Justice | 46,000 |
| Public Policy and Law | 50,000 |
| General Social Sciences | 41,000 |
| Comm. Art & Graphic Design | 48,000 |
| Interdisciplinary Studies | 50,000 |
| Philosophy | 48,000 |
| Art History | 45,000 |
| Animal and Plant Sciences | 43,000 |
| Foreign Language | 40,000 |
| English Language | 45,000 |
| Liberal Arts | 45,000 |
| Leisure and Hospitality | 44,000 |
| Psychology | 45,000 |
| Anthropology | 42,000 |
| Sociology | 45,000 |
| Fine Arts | 42,500 |
| Performing Arts | 41,900 |
| Health Services | 46,000 |
| Family and Consumer Sciences | 42,000 |
| Miscellaneous Education | 46,000 |
| Theology and Religion | 42,000 |
| Secondary Education | 45,000 |
| General Education | 42,000 |
| Special Education | 45,000 |
| Social Services | 42,000 |
| Elementary Education | 43,300 |
| Early Childhood Education | 42,000 |
- Every top-5 early career salary belongs to a STEM major with at least $75,000.
- Early Childhood Education opens at $42,000, matching the bottom of the pay scale with little variation across related majors.
- The national median early career wage sits at $55,000, which shows most degrees fall short of STEM fields by a full $20,000.
What is the median early-career salary for English majors?
- English majors earn a median salary of $45,000 early in their careers
What is the median starting salary for software developers?
- Computer Science graduates start their careers with a median salary of $80,000
What is the median entry-level salary of philosophy majors?
- Philosophy majors have a median early career salary of $48,000
What is the median early-career salary for economics majors?
- Economics graduates earn an average early career salary of $70,000
What is the median starting salary for mechanical engineers?
- Mechanical Engineering graduates earn a median early career salary of $75,000
What is the median entry-level salary of accountants?
- Accounting graduates earn a median early career salary of $60,000
What is the median early-career salary for teachers?
- Secondary Education graduates earn a median early career salary of $45,000
What is the median starting salary for nurses?
- Nursing graduates earn a median early career salary of $65,000
What is the median entry-level salary of architects?
- Architecture graduates earn a median early career salary of $52,000
What is the median early-career salary for college graduates overall?
- The overall median early career salary for college graduates is $55,000
What is the median starting salary for physical therapists?
- Treatment Therapy graduates earn a median early career salary of $46,900
What is the median entry-level salary of software engineers?
- Computer Science graduates earn a median early career salary of $80,000.
STEM degrees dominate the top of the early-career salary ladder, outperforming the national median by up to $25,000, yet the real divide lies in how quickly these fields convert education into financial momentum. Meanwhile, degrees in education and the humanities consistently yield clustered low salaries despite widespread demand, signaling a global labor market that values technical output over social impact.
Practical advice: For researchers and policymakers, this pay structure highlights where talent incentives misalign with societal needs. Realigning funding and prestige toward undervalued sectors could reshape outcomes in both education and equity.
Mid-career salary growth by major, %
While starting salaries paint an initial picture, the long-term view reveals which degrees truly hold their value over time.
Table with the median salary of a college graduate after 10 years by major:
| Major | Median mid-career wage |
| Aerospace Engineering | 125,000 |
| Computer Engineering | 122,000 |
| Chemical Engineering | 120,000 |
| Electrical Engineering | 120,000 |
| Computer Science | 115,000 |
| Mechanical Engineering | 115,000 |
| Economics | 110,000 |
| Finance | 110,000 |
| Industrial Engineering | 108,000 |
| Miscellaneous Engineering | 108,000 |
| Info. Systems & Management | 100,000 |
| General Engineering | 100,000 |
| Civil Engineering | 100,000 |
| Mathematics | 100,000 |
| Physics | 100,000 |
| Construction Services | 100,000 |
| Business Analytics | 100,000 |
| International Affairs | 100,000 |
| Engineering Technologies | 100,000 |
| Miscellaneous Physical Sciences | 99,000 |
| Miscellaneous Technologies | 92,000 |
| Chemistry | 90,000 |
| Political Science | 90,000 |
| General Business | 90,000 |
| Marketing | 90,000 |
| Advertising and PR | 89,000 |
| Biochemistry | 89,000 |
| Earth Sciences | 88,000 |
| Accounting | 88,000 |
| Communications | 85,000 |
| Journalism | 85,000 |
| Nursing | 84,000 |
| Ethnic Studies | 83,000 |
| Overall | 83,000 |
| Architecture | 80,000 |
| Mass Media | 80,000 |
| Biology | 80,000 |
| Treatment Therapy | 80,000 |
| Business Management | 80,000 |
| Geography | 78,000 |
| History | 77,000 |
| Medical Technicians | 76,000 |
| Pharmacy | 76,000 |
| Agriculture | 75,000 |
| Environmental Studies | 75,000 |
| Miscellaneous Biological Science | 75,000 |
| Nutrition Sciences | 75,000 |
| Criminal Justice | 75,000 |
| Public Policy and Law | 75,000 |
| General Social Sciences | 75,000 |
| Comm. Art & Graphic Design | 75,000 |
| Interdisciplinary Studies | 72,000 |
| Philosophy | 72,000 |
| Art History | 71,000 |
| Animal and Plant Sciences | 70,000 |
| Foreign Language | 70,000 |
| English Language | 70,000 |
| Liberal Arts | 70,000 |
| Leisure and Hospitality | 70,000 |
| Psychology | 70,000 |
| Anthropology | 70,000 |
| Sociology | 70,000 |
| Fine Arts | 70,000 |
| Performing Arts | 70,000 |
| Health Services | 65,000 |
| Family and Consumer Sciences | 62,000 |
| Miscellaneous Education | 60,000 |
| Theology and Religion | 60,000 |
| Secondary Education | 58,000 |
| General Education | 55,000 |
| Special Education | 55,000 |
| Social Services | 54,000 |
| Elementary Education | 53,000 |
| Early Childhood Education | 49,000 |
- Aerospace Engineering tops the mid-career chart at $125,000, outpacing the national median by $42,000.
- Education majors cluster at the bottom, with Early Childhood Education stalling at just $49,000 mid-career.
- Every STEM major with a $100,000+ mid-career wage also ranked high in early career pay, which signals consistent long-term payoff.
What is the median mid-career salary for philosophy majors?
- Philosophy majors earn a median mid-career salary of $72,000
What is the median mid-career salary for business majors?
- General Business graduates earn a median mid-career salary of $90,000
What is the median mid-career salary for physics majors?
- Physics graduates earn a median mid-career salary of $100,000
This naturally raises the question: which majors consistently lead the pack across the career timeline?
Top 10 best-paying degrees in 2025
| Major | Median mid-career salary |
| Aerospace Engineering | 125,000 |
| Computer Engineering | 122,000 |
| Chemical Engineering | 120,000 |
| Electrical Engineering | 120,000 |
| Computer Science | 115,000 |
| Mechanical Engineering | 115,000 |
| Economics | 110,000 |
| Finance | 110,000 |
| Industrial Engineering | 108,000 |
| Miscellaneous Engineering | 108,000 |
- All top 10 mid-career salaries belong to STEM and business-related majors, which signals a total lockout of the humanities from the highest earners' table.
But salary alone doesn’t tell the whole story, some degrees strike a balance between manageable workload and high reward.
The easiest degrees that make the most money
*We ranked the easiest college majors by Career efficiency score using three key metrics: average GPA, weekly study hours, and graduation rates; check the methodology for more context.
Table with majors by career efficiency score
| Major | Average GPA | Weekly Study Hours | Graduation rate | Median mid-career wage | Difficulty score of the major | Career efficiency score |
| Economics | 3.29 | 14 | 71.35% | $110,000 | 6 | 17,939 |
| Journalism & Communications | 3.13 | 12 | 62.28% | $84,750 | 6 | 13,777 |
| Chemistry | 3.46 | 18 | 80.95% | $90,000 | 7 | 13,703 |
| Political Science | 4 | 15 | 54.80% | $90,000 | 8 | 11,992 |
| Sociology | 3 | 14 | 66.70% | $70,000 | 6 | 11,740 |
| Business Administration | 3.36 | 13 | 54.99% | $80,000 | 7 | 11,198 |
| Anthropology | 4 | 16 | 57.10% | $70,000 | 7 | 9,993 |
| Mathematics | 3.14 | 16 | 43.20% | $100,000 | 12 | 8,271 |
| Computer Science | 3.12 | 15 | 30.20% | $115,000 | 16 | 7,372 |
| Psychology | 3 | 14 | 47.40% | $70,000 | 10 | 7,161 |
| English | 3.65 | 16 | 41.90% | $70,000 | 10 | 6,733 |
| Arts & Performing Arts | 3.4 | 18 | 44.52% | $71,666 | 12 | 5,993 |
| Physics | 4 | 20 | 25.00% | $100,000 | 23 | 4,442 |
| History | 3.17 | 15 | 23.50% | $77,000 | 20 | 3,824 |
| Education | 3.19 | 14 | 12.00% | $55,000 | 35 | 1,560 |
- Economics leads with the highest career efficiency score of 17,939, which shows the best return on academic effort.
- Physics demands the most effort with 20 weekly study hours and a difficulty score of 23, yet yields one of the lowest efficiency scores.
- Education has the lowest graduation rate at 12 percent despite a relatively light workload, which signals a deeper systemic issue beyond difficulty.
Best ROI degrees
Let’s estimate the ROI of these majors; we can’t calculate the exact total investment for each individual (due to varying tuition, living costs, and financial aid), but we can use the average debt by major to calculate a Debt-Leveraged ROI, which is highly relevant for evaluating the best majors by financial return.
- Economics tops debt-leveraged ROI at 431 percent, which shows the most efficient path from debt to six figures.
- Early Childhood Education delivers the lowest debt-leveraged ROI at just 94.91 percent, which signals an unsustainable financial trade-off.
- Theology and Religion majors carry $37K in debt for a $60K salary, which means the worst value-for-money ratio.
To take this further, it’s worth comparing how much financial return each degree delivers relative to the debt it creates.
Table with college majors by debt-leveraged ROI:
| Major | 2022 Median Debt, $ | Median Mid-Career Salary, $ | Debt-leveraged ROI*, % |
| Economics | 20,700 | 110,000 | 431.40% |
| Computer Science | 22,283 | 115,000 | 416.09% |
| Computer Engineering | 24,043 | 122,000 | 407.49% |
| Chemical Engineering | 23,821 | 120,000 | 403.76% |
| Aerospace Engineering | 25,233 | 125,000 | 395.34% |
| Electrical Engineering | 24,616 | 120,000 | 387.50% |
| Finance | 22,792 | 110,000 | 382.63% |
| Mechanical Engineering | 24,504 | 115,000 | 369.32% |
| Mathematics | 21,704 | 100,000 | 360.74% |
| International Affairs | 21,704 | 100,000 | 360.74% |
| Industrial Engineering | 24,156 | 108,000 | 347.13% |
| Physics | 22,763 | 100,000 | 339.39% |
| Biochemistry | 20,645 | 89,000 | 331.09% |
| Construction Services | 24,332 | 100,000 | 311.06% |
| Political Science | 22,045 | 90,000 | 308.26% |
| Civil Engineering | 24,615 | 100,000 | 306.25% |
| Chemistry | 22,764 | 90,000 | 295.34% |
| General Engineering | 25,497 | 100,000 | 292.21% |
| Marketing | 23,689 | 90,000 | 279.93% |
| Earth Sciences | 23,493 | 88,000 | 274.67% |
| Advertising and PR | 23,887 | 89,000 | 272.50% |
| Communications | 22,820 | 85,000 | 272.48% |
| Nursing | 22,592 | 84,000 | 271.82% |
| General Business | 24,270 | 90,000 | 271.65% |
| Accounting | 24,086 | 88,000 | 265.36% |
| Journalism | 23,427 | 85,000 | 262.83% |
| Agriculture | 20,785 | 75,000 | 260.83% |
| Philosophy | 20,645 | 72,000 | 248.75% |
| History | 22,763 | 77,000 | 238.27% |
| Biology | 23,747 | 80,000 | 237.73% |
| Public Policy and Law | 22,763 | 75,000 | 229.40% |
| Business Management | 24,351 | 80,000 | 228.53% |
| Nutrition Sciences | 22,928 | 75,000 | 227.02% |
| Anthropology | 21,704 | 70,000 | 222.51% |
| Medical Technicians | 24,168 | 76,000 | 214.56% |
| Sociology | 22,292 | 70,000 | 214.01% |
| English Language | 22,501 | 70,000 | 211.09% |
| Criminal Justice | 24,534 | 75,000 | 205.77% |
| Architecture | 26,468 | 80,000 | 202.26% |
| Psychology | 23,292 | 70,000 | 200.53% |
| Liberal Arts | 23,326 | 70,000 | 199.92% |
| Pharmacy | 25,740 | 76,000 | 195.26% |
| Foreign Language | 24,034 | 70,000 | 191.25% |
| Environmental Studies | 26,513 | 75,000 | 182.88% |
| Fine Arts | 25,631 | 70,000 | 173.03% |
| Performing Arts | 27,527 | 70,000 | 154.29% |
| Engineering Technologies | 39,702 | 100,000 | 151.88% |
| Family and Consumer Sciences | 24,713 | 62,000 | 150.47% |
| Secondary Education | 25,417 | 58,000 | 128.20% |
| Health Services | 29,484 | 65,000 | 120.46% |
| Social Services | 24,863 | 54,000 | 117.11% |
| Special Education | 25,831 | 55,000 | 112.92% |
| Elementary Education | 25,140 | 53,000 | 110.02% |
| General Education | 28,001 | 55,000 | 96.42% |
| Early Childhood Education | 25,140 | 49,000 | 94.91% |
| Theology and Religion | 37,216 | 60,000 | 61.22% |
Of course, ROI isn’t only about income, it also depends on whether graduates can land jobs in the first place.
Graduates’ employment rate by major
- Nutrition Sciences leads with a 99.6 percent employment rate, which shows near-guaranteed job placement.
- Computer Science and Physics sit near the bottom of employment despite high salaries, which signals a tough market entry even for top earners.
- Education majors dominate the top employment ranks, which means schools hire fast even if they pay the least.
Conclusions:
1. Economics as a low-friction, high-return pathway
Economics delivers the strongest financial outcome with the lowest academic friction, outperforming even technical majors on ROI and efficiency. In an era where data fluency and analytical thinking drive global decision-making, this reflects the rising market value of economic literacy over technical specialization.
Practical advice: For students seeking elite outcomes without STEM-level intensity, economics is the smartest leverage point in today’s global job economy.
2. High pay doesn’t equal high access in STEM
Despite offering the highest mid-career salaries, fields like Physics and Computer Science show disproportionately low employment rates, revealing a bottleneck at market entry. This suggests that elite salaries in STEM reflect scarcity, not just skill, and that credentialing alone no longer secures placement.
Practical advice: STEM students must treat employability as a parallel skill: building portfolios, networks, or certifications is now as essential as the degree itself.
3. Education majors are the backbone of hiring, but the floor of income
Education degrees offer near-guaranteed jobs but minimal financial growth, exposing a structural paradox where the most reliably employed professionals are also the least rewarded. This gap reflects a global undervaluing of care work despite its essential role in societal infrastructure.
Practical advice: Students drawn to education should supplement with high-demand add-ons such as special ed credentials, tech tools, or international teaching pathways to reclaim both impact and earning power.
Methodology
- Mid-career salary in this analysis refers to the average salary of college graduates approximately 10 years after graduation. While the original data source from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s report “The Labor Market for Recent College Graduates” defines mid-career graduates as those aged 35 to 45, we focus on a narrower window to reflect outcomes closer to the 10-year post-graduation mark. This adjustment offers a more targeted view of salary growth over the first decade of a graduate’s career.
- We calculated the Career Efficiency Score using a two-step process: first, determining a “Difficulty Score” by dividing weekly study hours by the product of average GPA and graduation rate, and then dividing the median mid-career wage by this Difficulty Score to yield the final Career Efficiency Score.
- We estimated the ROI of college majors by exacting matches and closely related majors from two distinct datasets: one providing median bachelor’s degree debt by major (primarily from the Dept. of Education’s College Scorecard and Visual Capitalist, among others) and another detailing median mid-career wages by major (sourced from The Labor Market for Recent College Graduates by the New York Fed and other financial news outlets). For each matched or closely related major, we calculated the Return on Investment (ROI) using the formula: (Median Mid-Career Salary/Median Debt−1)×100%.
Sources:
- Grand Valley State University Graduation Rates by Major. https://reports.ia.gvsu.edu/grad/gradrates.html. Accessed 6 May 2025.
- Korhonen, Veera. “U.S. College Students Average Study Hours, by Major 2011| Statista.” Statista, 22 May 2012, https://www.statista.com/statistics/226433/college-student-study-hours-by-major-2011/.
- “The Labor Market for Recent College Graduates.” New York Fed Logo, https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/college-labor-market. Accessed 6 May 2025.