The Most Lucrative College Majors

When I was in college it didn’t occur to me to major in something that would lead to a lucrative career. I started out as a history major and ultimately switched to journalism.

Today, however, teenagers, including my own, seem far more interested in choosing majors and careers that will lead to large paychecks. My son aspires to be an engineer and my daughter is currently a business major although she is also majoring in Spanish.

With the cost of college degrees so high, it’s only natural that students want to land jobs that can provide them with a comfortable living and help them pay off any loans. For those with this goal in mind, Forbes recently published a story that included the most lucrative college majors. The story is here.

Computer engineering topped the list of the highest paying majors. Computer science majors, who have been in the workforce less than five years, are earning an average salary of $60,500. The four highest paid majors for recent grads were all related to engineering.

The pay of engineers, however, tends to peak while those of certain other major, such as economics, finance and math, enjoy more growth potential. Interestingly, grads with economics, accounting and finance degrees all start out making about the same salary, but after a decade in the workforce, econ majors are earning almost $12,000 more than finance majors and finance majors are making $13,000 more than accountants. You can see a chart illustrating this phenomenon at this blog.

You can find more information about the highest paying college majors at Scholarships.com

Meanwhile, here are today’s 10 most popular college majors:

1. Business Administration.

2. Psychology.

3. Nursing.

4. Biology

5. Education

6. English literature

7. Economics

8. Communication Studies/Speech Communications/Rhetoric.

9. Political Science and Government

10. Computer and Information Science.