Specializing in a particular field and graduating with a degree requires a crucial first step: choosing a major. Picking a major often charts the course for one’s future career path, making it an important decision for college students to consider.
Many of the best jobs have few attributes in common: The best jobs may pay well, match your talents and skills, aren’t too stressful, offer room to advance throughout your careers, and provide a satisfying work-life balance. As a career seeker, you must also consider whether a career is in demand.
Some might argue that you can secure a high-paying job with or without any college major. However, if you are looking for a field of study that historically produces highly paid graduates, an engineering degree might be your best option.
In most countries, especially in the western countries, electrical engineering and computer engineering lead the rankings of majors with the highest median salaries and are just two of eight engineering degrees among the top 10.
In the United States, for instance, electrical engineering degrees holders earn a median annual salary of 110,000 USD, while computer engineering grads earn a median of 104,000 USD.
Pharmacy, pharmaceutical sciences, and administration ranked in the third place with a median salary of 100,000 USD.
The following are the majors with the highest annual median salaries:
- Electrical engineering, median salary of 110,000 USD
- Computer engineering, median salary of 104,000 USD
- Pharmacy, pharmaceutical sciences, and administration, median salary of 100,000 USD
- Chemical engineering, median salary of 100,000 USD
- Computer science, median salary of 100,000 USD
- Aerospace engineering, median salary of 100,000 USD
- Materials engineering and materials science, median salary of 98,500 USD
- Engineering mechanics, physics, and science, median salary of 95,000 USD
- Mechanical engineering, median salary of 95,000 USD
- Industrial and manufacturing engineering, median salary of 90,000 USD
Although electrical engineering degree consider to be highest paid career, business studies are the most popular majors for students pursuing bachelor’s degrees. Following business majors in popularity, degrees in health professions, social sciences and history, psychology, biological and biomedical sciences, engineering, communication, and visual and performing arts.