What Earnings by Major Can and Cannot Tell You

Earnings data is the most misused information in college research. Not because the numbers are wrong, but because they answer narrower questions than people assume.

Two separate figures appear on this site, from two separate federal agencies. They are not interchangeable.

Figure one: what graduates of this major, at this college, earned

The Department of Education reports median earnings for people who completed a given programme at a given college, measured one year after they finished. That specificity is the useful part. A college-wide median mixes engineers with fine artists and tells nobody anything; the same college's computer science and psychology graduates can differ by a factor of three.

What it does not tell you:

It is one year out. Careers that start slowly and pay well later, which describes a great deal of public service, research and the arts, look worst at exactly the moment this figure is taken.

It is a median, not a promise. Half the cohort earned less. The figure says nothing about the spread around it.

It reflects who enrolled, not only what was taught. Colleges admitting students with more family connections and less financial pressure will tend to post higher earnings regardless of teaching quality. The number cannot separate the two.

It reflects where graduates live. A college whose graduates mostly stay in an expensive metropolitan area will show higher earnings and not necessarily better outcomes, because the cost of living moved too.

This is why the major pages on this site show a range across colleges rather than one national figure for a subject. The spread is the finding. If the same major pays very differently depending on where it is taken, that is worth knowing before you assume the subject determines the salary.

Figure two: what people in a given occupation earn

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports median pay, projected growth and annual openings for each detailed occupation. Major pages list the occupations a field of study prepares people for, with those figures attached.

Two things to hold onto here:

That list is not a record of where graduates went. It comes from a federal crosswalk describing what a subject prepares you for. There is no placement data on this site, and there is no honest way to derive one from what exists.

The wage covers everyone already doing the job. It includes people thirty years into a career. It is not what someone earns a year after finishing a degree, and it is usually a good deal higher. Many of those occupations also require a licence, a master's or a doctorate on top of a bachelor's, which the pay figure alone does not show.

The question worth asking

Not "which major pays most", which the data answers badly, but:

• Does this subject lead to work I would actually do?
• What does it cost me to get there, and how much of that is borrowed?
• How widely does this major's outcome vary between colleges, and where does the one I am considering sit in that range?

The last one is the question these pages are built to answer.

Where to look

• Find the careers that fit you, and what to study for each
• Work out what a college would cost you
• Where every figure comes from