Does your major matter more than your college?
The federal government now publishes what graduates of each major, at each college, actually earn. Across 12,334 programs the answer is consistent: what you study separates outcomes more than where you study it — though not for every field.
The gap no college closes
Each bar below runs from the 10th to the 90th percentile of programs in that field — the range you would see across colleges, not a single school's result. Engineering's floor is $83,916. That is higher than the ceiling of 15 of the 21 fields charted.
Programs with at least 50 graduates behind the figure. Bar spans the 10th–90th percentile of college medians; hover for the midpoint.
Measured both ways
Take one college and look across its majors, then take one major and look across colleges. The first varies more. A typical college's programs span 1.90× from its 10th to 90th percentile; a typical field spans 1.48× across the colleges that teach it.
Median 90th/10th-percentile ratio across 255 colleges and 31 fields with enough programs to measure.
Where this breaks down
The average hides real exceptions, and the clearest is computer science. Across the 170 colleges with a measurable program, its medians run from $59,603 to $268,121 — a 1.84× spread between the 10th and 90th percentile, the widest of any single field. For this one subject, where you study it matters nearly as much as that you studied it. Fields with licensure or one dominant employer, such as nursing and teaching, behave the opposite way: floor and ceiling sit close together wherever you go.
So the rule is directional, not deterministic. Choosing between a high-paying and a low-paying field outweighs almost any college decision. Having already chosen computer science, the college list matters more than this page's headline suggests.
Every field, in numbers
| Field | 10th | Median | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engineering | $83,916 | $94,483 | $112,212 |
| Computer science | $69,552 | $90,430 | $126,183 |
| Engineering technology | $75,298 | $83,553 | $96,378 |
| Health professions | $51,086 | $77,807 | $98,449 |
| Business & marketing | $55,840 | $70,313 | $94,458 |
| Social sciences | $49,024 | $61,466 | $89,075 |
| Biology | $47,954 | $59,119 | $73,120 |
| Interdisciplinary studies | $48,657 | $57,341 | $76,044 |
| Communication & journalism | $46,129 | $57,254 | $69,954 |
| Homeland security & protective services | $46,322 | $56,226 | $69,365 |
| Natural resources & conservation | $46,207 | $55,156 | $67,805 |
| Parks & recreation | $46,912 | $54,875 | $66,003 |
| Agriculture | $46,843 | $54,509 | $77,034 |
| Liberal arts & humanities | $43,321 | $53,626 | $65,474 |
| History | $46,101 | $52,871 | $60,089 |
| Public administration & social service | $44,549 | $52,194 | $60,755 |
| Family & consumer sciences | $43,166 | $51,610 | $62,506 |
| Psychology | $42,822 | $51,200 | $60,338 |
| English | $41,105 | $50,034 | $59,032 |
| Education | $42,187 | $49,025 | $58,828 |
| Visual & performing arts | $36,854 | $44,788 | $59,188 |
How to read these numbers
- They cover federally aided graduates only. Earnings come from IRS records for students who received federal financial aid, so they describe part of each graduating class, not all of it.
- Small programs move a lot. Everything here uses programs with at least 50 graduates. Published figures go down to 16, where a couple of unusual careers can shift a median by tens of thousands.
- A median is not a starting salary. These are measured four years after graduation, pooling students who finished in 2017–18 and 2018–19.