A major financial commitment that will have an influence on future wages is attending college.
The average wage of a student four years after graduation might significantly vary depending on their major and alma mater, according to recent research.
How College Degrees Influence Post-Graduation Salaries
Even though there are no guarantees in life, a new study identifies the top 10 majors that often result in the highest-paying jobs for recent graduates in the first four years following graduation.
For Gen Z college students anxious about joining a tumultuous economy filled with layoffs and, in the opinion of some experts, on the brink of disruption, knowing what leads to relatively higher incomes can serve as something of a guiding light.
It should come as no surprise that STEM majors are in great demand, according to a report from the HEA Group, a higher education research and consulting firm.
The survey also examined the typical salaries for the most popular majors using US statistics. Department of Education data shows that only three of the four years following graduation result in early-career incomes that are, on average, over $50,000 per year.
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Unveiling the Highest-Paying Majors
The greatest typical early-career wages are found in operations research, with salaries slightly over $112,000 per year.
Operations research positions are for analysts who utilize arithmetic to analyze and enhance a company’s performance. According to BLS data, there are only 104,200 positions for operations research analysts, but this area is predicted to develop by 23% faster than normal this decade.
The most common of the high-paying majors is computer science, and graduates make an average of $105,000 a year, which is far more than the median annual income of full-time workers in the United States, which is approximately $57,000.
Nursing is the most common major that pays the most, with a yearly salary of over $76,000, while a major in communications can expect to make about $49,000.
The highest-paying majors for bachelor’s degree holders’ average incomes are:
- Operations Research: $112,000
- Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering: $109,000
- Computer Science: $105,000
- Marine Transportation: $104,000
- Computer Engineering: $99,000
- Veterinary Medicine: $97,500
- Petroleum Engineering: $97,000
- Systems Engineering: $95,000
- Pharmaceutical Science: $94,000
- Electrical, Electronics and Communications Engineering: $92,000
The highest-paying majors for bachelor’s degree holders’ average incomes are:
- Business Administration: $58,000
- Nursing: $76,500
- Psychology: $43,000
- Criminal Justice: $47,000
- Accounting: $64,000
- Communications: $49,000
- Teacher Education: $42,000
- Biology: $49,000
- Liberal Arts and Humanities: $44,000
- Health and Physical Education: $47,000
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