Study: Workers with STEM degrees are more likely to report higher salaries and lower unemployment rates
Natalie Todoroff knew immediately during her first semester of college that she wanted to major in English. She says she had a “total gut feeling” that it was the right degree for her, even with the knowledge that English majors have a reputation for being unemployable.
However, finding a job after college wasn’t the hard part for Todoroff. She was able to secure not one but two jobs in the publishing industry. Instead, it was her low salary. Those publishing jobs didn’t pay a living wage for New York City, forcing her to get financial help from her family.
“Having an English major certainly helped me get my foot in the door of publishing, but I had no idea that it was such a low-paying industry,” she says. “I knew I had to transition to something else. I didn’t want to wait until my early 30s to have the possibility of making a comfortable living.”
Every year, millions of Americans go to college and declare their majors. Some know exactly what they want to do. But many don’t.
Some, like Todoroff, go with their gut. Some choose their majors based on earnings potential or job prospects. Some switch to different majors after realizing their initial major choice wasn’t for them. But with rising college tuition and a workforce increasingly comprised of college grads, it’s increasingly a high-stakes decision.
To better understand the return on investment (ROI) of college majors, Bankrate analyzed the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2022 American Community Survey (ACS) data and ranked 152 bachelor’s degrees based on median annual income, unemployment rate and the percentage of workers with an advanced degree.
We found that not all college degrees are created equally. STEM bachelor’s degrees are most often associated with steady employment and a solid income, while ROI is not as obvious for those with bachelor’s degrees in the arts and humanities.
Picking a major has a lot to do with money, but it isn't just about money. In order to get the return for your degree, you have to make sure that you are choosing a field and a program that aligns with your competitive advantage.— Tatiana Velasco, Senior Research Associate at Community College Research Center
Electrical engineering took the No. 1 spot this year with a median annual salary of $115,000 and an unemployment rate of 1.9 percent.
Some of the top majors include electrical engineering, computer engineering, petroleum engineering and aerospace engineering.
Studio arts ranked last with a median annual salary of $40,000 and an unemployment rate of 4.6 percent.
Most valuable college majors
Workers with STEM bachelor’s degrees were likelier to report higher salaries and lower unemployment rates, and many have secured jobs without advanced degrees, according to Bankrate’s 2024 ranking of the most and least valuable college majors.
STEM majors secured every one of the top 10 spots in our ranking, with engineering degrees claiming eight of the top 10 spots. The top 10 majors in our ranking have median salaries that range between $95,000 and $115,000 annually and unemployment rates that range between 0.9 percent and 2.3 percent. Our 2021 ranking yielded similar results, indicating that the high rates of return for STEM majors have been a consistent trend over the last several years.
For this ranking, we considered bachelor’s degrees “valuable” if they were associated with high salaries, low unemployment rates and low rates of workers with advanced degrees.
Our ranking favored college degrees if graduates also reported higher salaries and lower unemployment rates. Meanwhile, we downgraded majors if a high percentage of graduates reported that they also pursued advanced degrees before employment, given that the extra step takes additional time and money to accomplish. We further limited our analysis to exclude majors reported by fewer than 250 people, and we considered bachelor’s degree holders who were in the labor force and either employed or seeking work.
The 10 most valuable college majors are:
-
Electrical engineering
- Median salary: $115K
- Unemployment rate: 1.9%
- Percentage with advanced degrees: 47.6%
-
Computer engineering
- Median salary: $112K
- Unemployment rate: 2.1%
- Percentage with advanced degrees: 38.8%
-
Petroleum engineering
- Median salary: $100K
- Unemployment rate: 0.9%
- Percentage with advanced degrees: 39.2%
-
Aerospace engineering
- Median salary: $105K
- Unemployment rate: 1.9%
- Percentage with advanced degrees: 48.9%
-
Materials science
- Median salary: $100K
- Unemployment rate: 1.1%
- Percentage with advanced degrees: 63.7%
-
Mechanical engineering
- Median salary: $100K
- Unemployment rate: 1.9%
- Percentage with advanced degrees: 38.9%
-
Electrical engineering technology
- Median salary: $100K
- Unemployment rate: 2.3%
- Percentage with advanced degrees: 31.7%
-
Engineering mechanics, physics, and science
- Median salary: $100K
- Unemployment rate: 1.5%
- Percentage with advanced degrees: 59.1%
-
Chemical engineering
- Median salary: $100K
- Unemployment rate: 2.1%
- Percentage with advanced degrees: 46.7%
-
Actuarial science
- Median salary: $95K
- Unemployment rate: 1.9%
- Percentage with advanced degrees: 20%
Electrical engineering took the No. 1 spot this year on the ranking with a median annual salary of $115,000 and an unemployment rate of 1.9 percent. It has the highest median salary of all the majors we analyzed. Compared to the median salary of the last major on our ranking (studio arts at $40,000), full-time workers with electrical engineering degrees earned $75,000 more annually in 2022.
Nearly 48 percent of electrical engineering graduates earned advanced degrees, which is lower than that of grads with other high-earning degrees such as engineering mechanics, physics and science and pharmacy. This suggests that more than half of electrical engineering graduates have been working in jobs that don’t require advanced degrees.
Computer engineering is the second-most valuable major, followed by petroleum engineering. Workers who earned bachelor’s degrees in computer engineering and petroleum engineering had median incomes of $112,000 and $100,000 per year, respectively. These fields also appear to be competitive for workers (unemployment rates of 2.1 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively). Nearly 2 in 5 workers (38.8 percent and 39.2 percent, respectively) in those majors have advanced degrees.
Least valuable college majors
Arts and humanities degrees landed at the bottom of our ranking, with arts majors claiming six of the bottom 10 spots, largely due to their low earnings prospects and higher unemployment rates. The bottom 10 majors in our ranking have median salaries that range between $40,000 and $53,000 annually and unemployment rates that range between 2.9 percent and 5.5 percent.
The 10 least valuable college majors are:
-
Studio arts
- Median salary: $40K
- Unemployment rate: 4.6%
- Percentage with advanced degrees: 28.1%
-
Drama and theater arts
- Median salary: $44K
- Unemployment rate: 4.9%
- Percentage with advanced degrees: 29%
-
Visual and performing arts
- Median salary: $40K
- Unemployment rate: 3.8%
- Percentage with advanced degrees: 28.7%
-
Film, video and photographic arts
- Median salary: $46K
- Unemployment rate: 5.5%
- Percentage with advanced degrees: 13.8%
-
Miscellaneous fine arts
- Median salary: $45K
- Unemployment rate: 4.8%
- Percentage with advanced degrees: 15%
-
Clinical psychology
- Median salary: $45.5K
- Unemployment rate: 2.9%
- Percentage with advanced degrees: 69.1%
-
Communication technologies
- Median salary: $50K
- Unemployment rate: 5.3%
- Percentage with advanced degrees: 11.9%
-
Library science
- Median salary: $48K
- Unemployment rate: 3.2%
- Percentage with advanced degrees: 69.2%
-
Fine arts
- Median salary: $45K
- Unemployment rate: 3.7%
- Percentage with advanced degrees: 25%
-
Other foreign languages, except for French, German, Latin and other common foreign languages
- Median salary: $53K
- Unemployment rate: 4.8%
- Percentage with advanced degrees: 45.2%
Studio arts landed in last place in our ranking, mainly because the median annual income for workers with that degree was $40,000. Additionally, 4.6 percent of workers with a studio arts degree were unemployed and 28 percent were working with advanced degrees.
Drama and theater arts and visual and performing arts also ranked poorly due to lower median salaries and higher unemployment rates. These majors had unemployment rates of 4.9 percent and 3.8 percent, respectively.
The median income for workers with drama and theater arts degrees was $44,000 per year, while workers with visual and performing arts degrees brought home a median annual income of $40,000 in 2022. Workers in both majors earned significantly less than full-time, year-round workers with bachelor’s degrees ($64,911), according to 2022 Census Bureau data.
The data for bachelor's degrees in liberal arts and more general fields tend to show lower earnings, but there's a lot of complexity to that. These may be paths that require more time and investment for you to see the economic benefits.— Tatiana Velasco, Senior Research Associate at Community College Research Center
The cost of college is high — here’s how to maximize your ROI
College tuition has become more expensive in the last few decades, and at some universities, students (or their parents) pay well over $50,000 per year to attend. That’s the equivalent of a 12 percent down payment on a typical U.S. home ($416,700 as of August 2024) to earn a four-year degree.
In the 2022–23 academic year, the total average cost of attending college was higher at four-year private nonprofit institutions ($58,600) than at four-year private for-profit institutions ($33,600) and four-year public institutions ($27,100), according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
As a result, more Americans have taken on student loan debt, amounting to a total of $1.7 trillion in the U.S., according to Federal Reserve data. A majority of undergraduates borrow money for college from the federal government.
Almost half of U.S. adults (49 percent) think it’s less important to have a four-year college degree today to get a well-paying job than it was 20 years ago, according to a May Pew Research survey. Only 22 percent believe that a four-year college degree today is worth the expense if someone has to take out loans, the survey found.
So, how can students (or students’ parents) maximize their investment in higher education? Your college major in undergraduate school impacts your earnings potential and job prospects, and it may influence whether or not you need to pursue an advanced degree to secure a job.
But most students don’t pick their college major solely based on those three factors — nor should they. According to Tatiana Velasco, a senior research associate at Community College Research Center, students will be most successful when pursuing a field that aligns with their interests and competitive advantages.
“It’s what’s going to keep you motivated in choosing your field, overcoming challenges and staying committed to building a career in the area that you’ve chosen,” Velasco says.
She adds that a key part of success is getting access to advisors who can help you determine what field motivates you to invest time, resources and money. “It has a lot to do with how prepared and supported you are when choosing a major and starting a major,“ she says.
If you’re struggling to pick a college degree, Lumina Foundation Strategy Director Chris Mullin suggests ruling out what you don’t want to major in first.
There's a lot of stress and pressure behind choosing a college major, so let's get rid of everything you don't want to be first.— Chris Mullin, Ph.D., Lumina Foundation Strategy Director
How to reduce college costs
Our study didn’t adjust for factors such as the selectivity of the colleges that workers attended or the amount they paid for their degrees. However, the cost of attending college, from tuition to housing to books, is an integral part of the ROI equation.
For example, earning an engineering degree at an affordable in-state college is likely to guarantee a solid investment. Attending a private college with high tuition costs for a fine arts degree may be riskier.
Velasco says one way to lower the upfront costs of college is by attending community college for general education classes, especially if you’re unsure of what college degree you want to pursue. Students can eventually transfer those courses to a four-year university to complete their bachelor’s degrees, she says.
“Community colleges are uniquely positioned to bring in students that have the potential to reach whatever path they choose with a very low entry cost,” she says. “Community colleges are relatively cheap and free in many states.”
Students looking for ways to keep down college costs should also be strategic about their housing. Room and board — or campus-based housing — is one of the largest expenses in college, but you may be able to save money by living further away from campus if that’s an option. Or, if you’re attending a college that’s near your family, you may want to consider living at home to save money. In addition to that, consider taking up a part-time job or side hustle while in college to help pay for day-to-day expenses, housing or even tuition.
Despite cost concerns, earning a bachelor’s degree can pay off. In 2023, full-time workers between ages 22 and 27 who held a bachelor’s degree earned a median annual wage of $60,000, compared with $36,000 for full-time workers of the same age with a high school diploma, according to an analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
“Bachelor’s degrees continue to be worth it,” Velasco says. “On average, earnings are higher with a bachelor’s degree, even if you see a lot of variation with entry earnings across different bachelors.”
Take these five steps during your college years to help start your financial journey on solid footing:
- Start building your credit by getting on a parent’s credit card as an authorized user or applying for a student credit card and using it responsibly.
- Invest early through an IRA.
- Open a high-yield savings account and set up automatic contributions.
- Make a budget and track your spending.
- Consider pursuing a side hustle, whether it’s your own business or being a waitress at your local college restaurant.
3 graduates on why they chose their college majors
Ryan Cheng, a 23-year-old appraiser based in San Mateo County, majored in economics at the University of California, Berkeley. He had always planned to major in either economics or business, mainly because he thought it was important to understand those subjects after founding a failed startup in high school. He said the degree also offered strong salary potential.
“I have always been a curious person, more a jack of all trades rather than a specialist type,” he says. “Economics, to me, is a very useful degree to fit into many industries that I might be interested in, not to mention that the salary expectations are much higher than a majority of other majors.”
Similarly, Jessa Lyn Lizama, an associate product designer at Bankrate, says she always knew she wanted to pursue an arts degree. After moving to the U.S. from Saipan to attend the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, she settled on graphic design as her major because she found it was the most popular job title at U.S. companies for workers with arts degrees.
“It was definitely a huge decision for me because I lived across the globe and we didn’t have the money for it,” she says. “I was doing a lot of research online and felt like graphic design was a happy medium. It fulfills my passion and pays a good wage.”
Jason Braucht, an engineering manager at Bankrate, went to college to study computer science with the intent to eventually go to medical school. After a couple of years of school, he realized that he was better at computer programming than biology and chemistry and decided to enter the workforce after graduating in 1999 — right when the internet was coming of age.
“There was a ton of opportunity in technology,” he says. “And I had met my wife while in school which had some influence on my decision to enter the workforce.”
Having a bachelor’s degree in computer science “almost certainly made it easier” to land his first job in that field, he says.
Braucht spent 10 years in the workforce before pursuing a master’s degree in software engineering. Nearly 32 percent of workers with a computer science bachelor’s degree have gone on to get a master’s degree or doctorate, according to Bankrate’s analysis.
“I decided to pursue an advanced degree in hopes it would unlock additional opportunities in that industry,” he says.
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