

That said, there are always shades of gray. workers when it’s often accompanied by an ever-increasing student debt balance, research has found it’s still usually worth it, and the HEA Group’s report also shows that those with a bachelor’s degree tend to outearn holders of associate’s degrees and postsecondary certificates. Though there’s an ongoing debate about the value of a college degree for U.S. But “this new salary data allows prospective students to make a more informed decision as they examine individual programs at colleges they are considering.” There are many intangible aspects that salary data simply won’t measure,” the HEA Group notes.
#DEGREE FOR COLLEGE DROP OUT PROFESSIONAL#
There are other factors that go into starting salaries, including location and company (a communications professional might earn more right out of school at a tech company than at a nonprofit, for example). Meanwhile, the most popular major that pays the most is nursing, averaging over $76,000 per year, while a communications major can expect to earn around $49,000.Īny aggregate list will give an incomplete look at what graduates can expect to earn.

income of around $57,000 for full-time workers. There are only 104,200 jobs for operations research analysts, per BLS data, but the field is expected to grow faster than average by 23% this decade.Ĭomputer science is the most popular of the highly paid majors, and degree-earners bring in around $105,000 per year-well above the median U.S. Operations research-leading to jobs for analysts who use math to evaluate and improve a company’s performance-leads to the highest average early-career earnings, at just over $112,000 per year. Department of Education that reflects the average pay for four years after graduating, and only three lead to early-career salaries over $50,000 per year, on average. The report also took a look at what the most popular majors tend to pay, using data from the U.S. The top-paying majors won’t be much of a surprise-STEM fields reign supreme, according to a report from the HEA Group, a higher education research and consulting agency.
