PayScale has recently revealed that the highest-paying college majors are those that are in the STEM category. Petroleum engineering leads the pack with a median salary of $172,000 per annum.
Systems engineers take the second spot with a median pay of $121,000. Those who have taken majors in computer science related fields will also find themselves in a good spot as computer science and engineering related jobs earn a median salary of $116,000. Along with computer science and engineering in the fifth spot is nuclear engineering.
The third spot and fourth spot is occupied by actuarial science and chemical engineering which yield a $119,000 median salary every year. However, the early career median pay of a chemical engineer is higher than those with an actuarial science major by $9,000. But the $60,800 per year early median salary of an actuarial is not bad at all.
The fifth and sixth spot goes to electronics & communications engineering and electrical & computer engineering. These engineering majors will give those who opted for this in college a median salary of $115,000 and $114,000 respectively.
The seventh spot is another tie between aeronautical and computer engineering at $113,000. The eight and ninth spots are also a tie with computer engineering and computer science & mathematics at eighth while physics & mathematics and applied mathematics at ninth.To complete the top ten is electrical engineering which has a median salary of $110,000.
With this list in mind, it pays a lot if students pay attention to what kind of major they will take in college. In a survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, more than half of the employers who took part in the survey said that most of the candidates they are planning to hire are those with STEM-related majors.
Meanwhile, the survey also revealed that education and humanities majors belong at the bottom of the list with a reported median salary of $34,891 and $46,065 respectively.
