College Majors and Careers That Make the Most Money: Report
As the price of an undergraduate degree continues to climb, many college students want to know which paths will bring financial security.
A typical student graduating from high school in 2025 could take on an estimated $40,000 in student loan debt before they finish their college education, and interest rates on undergraduate federal student loans are the highest they've been in more than 10 years, Nerdwallet reported.
The price tag that comes with a college degree has ballooned steadily over the past several decades — with a staggering rise in the past 15 years.
Between 2000 and 2022, average tuition and fees increased by 60%, from $9,204 to $14,688 per year, and those costs spiked 13% in just 12 years between 2010 and 2022 alone, according to BestColleges.
Related: These Are the College Majors With the Lowest Unemployment Rates — and Philosophy Ranks Higher Than Computer Science
Today's college graduates can expect to spend $153,080 by the end of their undergraduate education, per Student Choice, an organization that partners with more than 300 credit unions to facilitate student lending solutions.
But which college majors — and the careers they make possible for new graduates — provide the highest return on students' investment?
Student Choice examined data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to pinpoint the median earnings for the top 20 most popular college majors in the U.S. The analysis assumed five years in the workforce and four years spent paying the average annual cost of college.
Related: Goldman Sachs CIO Says Coders Should Take Philosophy Classes — Here's Why
According to the report, engineering emerged as the degree with the highest five-year return on investment at 326.6%, and computer science/technology came in close second at 310.3%.
Computer and information systems managers and advertising, promotions and marketing managers snagged the top spots for careers with the highest five-year return on investment, at 553.7% and 511.4%, respectively, per the data.
Related: These 3 Professions Are Most Likely to Vanish in the Next 20 Years Due to AI, According to a New Report
Take a look at Student Choice's infographic below for the full picture of its report on the majors and careers offering the highest return on investment for the price of a college education:
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Motor Trend
23 minutes ago
- Motor Trend
China Is Way, Way Ahead in the Car Business—Can the West Catch Up?
It's tricky for Americans to appreciate the magnitude of the technology gap that has formed and continues growing between new Chinese cars and those being produced elsewhere in the developed world. That's because our market has effectively been walled off, at least from China's homegrown brands and global nameplate electric cars. MotorTrend has attempted to lead on American press coverage of this vital market, by producing a documentary on China's inroads to Mexico (and, therefore, North America), attending Chinese auto shows, and by testing more domestic-market Chinese cars than our peer publications. The West lags behind China's rapid car development due to slower innovation cycles and differing market priorities. To catch up, Western automakers must prioritize speed, adaptability, and cost-efficiency, targeting China as the main competitor, not traditional rivals. This summary was generated by AI using content from this MotorTrend article Read Next So we listened, nodded, and took lots of notes as Terry Woychowski—CEO of vehicle benchmarking firm Caresoft Global, addressed the Society of Automotive Analysts and the Automotive Press Association, shared his thoughts on what it might take for The West to begin closing the gap with the Chinese. The question to ask yourselves is, do we have the resolve to implement his suggestions? Speed is a Key Differentiator China seems to better appreciate that the one thing there's simply no getting any more of, whether by hard work, cunning, guile, or force: time. Once a minute's gone, there's no getting it back. Terry recounted many examples of the huge differences in vehicle development time, noting that China typically spends one and a half to two years developing a new platform, versus legacy OEMs' four to five years. That's how Xpeng developed five platforms in nine years, launching one in 2018, another in 2020, and the next three in 2024. Volkswagen, by contrast, launched its MEB architecture in 2019; announced PPE in 2019 and launched it in 2025; while SSP was announced in 2021 and is scheduled for the 2028–2029 timeframe. He presented the chart below illustrating the phases of a model development program, each of which established automakers spend three to four times as long completing. Development Cycle Times (in months) Longer Hours Terry claims his contacts in China report a 9-9-6 paradigm that, frankly, seems utterly anathema to Western sensibilities. Engineers work from 9 in the morning to 9 at night six days per week. It is a pace they become inured to growing up in China, where admission slots to the coveted engineering colleges are extremely competitive. So they reportedly study way harder and party way less throughout their secondary and higher educations. Terry serves on the College of Engineering Advisory Board at Michigan Technological University, so he took time to visit ShanghaiTech University on a weekend day while in town for the auto show. He reported the library being jammed full. Speed of Innovation The days of Chinese R&D being jokingly referred to as 'receive and duplicate' instead of "research and development" are long gone. Terry reports BYD has filed as many as 45 patents per day . To date the Chinese giant holds 15 times as many patents as Tesla. Speed of Implementation Even when they don't think up a great idea on their own, the Chinese are way faster at implementing that idea once they see it. And they put up far less resistance to outside ideas. Some examples Woychowski provided: Tesla implemented its innovative integrated heat pump and EV thermal management 'Octovalve' on the Model Y in March 2020 and Huawei developed a similar 'super-manifold' with heat-pump capability for its AVATR models by mid-2022. Tesla switched from flexible copper onboard power cables used in Model S/Y to a lighter, cheaper, easier-to-install rigid aluminum setup on the Model 3/Y. The Chinese new-energy vehicle startups adopted this practice from their inception, while the legacy EV manufacturers still mainly use copper. Tesla proposed using the Transformer AI network (large language model) in Full Self Driving in 2021. Great Wall Motor followed suit launching its Highway Pilot in mass production the same year; Nio and Xpeng in 2022; and Li-Auto in 2023. DeepSeek was developed in China by Hangzhou DeepSeek AI Basic Technology Research Co. to make it easier to implement the Transformer AI LLM into automotive platforms. According to Terry, no traditional OEM has deployed it yet. Tesla introduced Gigacastings, and already Xpeng's are lighter and stronger than Tesla's. Tesla uses 9,000-ton presses; the Chinese are developing 16,000-ton presses that may be able to make an entire half of a car. The Chinese car buyer's top-five purchase considerations are technology (digital cockpits, smart features, ADAS, etc.), connectivity (embedded cellular connection with smartphone integration and AI assistants), relational priorities (brand status and reputation, OEM-customer ownership experience, riding comfort), non-traditional values (buying smarter, with less regard for traditional brand loyalties, focus on affordability, youthfulness), and environmental priorities (electrification, willingness to pay more for greener tech). By contrast, Terry says the main North American, European, Korean, and Japanese manufacturers ' top-five priorities are acceleration, power/torque, chassis grip and handling, NVH, and fit/finish. He contends the priority gap between Chinese and global buyers may be narrowing, suggesting a realignment of priorities might be overdue in Western automakers. Good question. And maybe not. But then again, those cars sell for vastly less money when new, and the march of technological progress may render them unsalable after six or eight years anyway. In that case, maybe they just need to be highly recyclable (or perhaps the third world will soon be able to tap into a huge cache of obsolete but still drivable cars). Structural Cost Advantages The playing field is not level and may not be level-able. There's no way to put a number on the cost savings of a government regulatory framework that is established and never gets altered by changes in the political winds. But some factors that have been quantified include the general cost to acquire land, raise capital, and borrow money, which is estimated to be 7–9 percent lower for Chinese OEMs. Chinese OEMs and suppliers are each said to be about 7 percent less profitable. One practice that might suggest potential savings for the establishment is a Chinese auto industry willingness to make common certain products and specifications, sharing some parts across manufacturers and suppliers to lower the cost for all (Caresoft attributes a 7–15 percent savings to this practice). What Must American Companies Do? Change everything. Bust paradigms. Stop prioritizing features and attributes that customers aren't willing to pay for nor care about. Establish a moon-landing mission mindset and target China as the competition, as opposed to cross-town or trans-Atlantic rivals. Lobby governments in lockstep to reduce structural costs. Most of all, take full advantage of any temporary relief tariffs may afford to lower costs and accelerate development. China faces some internal headwinds, including gross overcapacity, which is driving both the national impetus to export and an expected consolidation or culling of brands in the next few years. Some suppliers are in tenuous financial shape, which the government is looking to shore up by forcing OEMs to pay suppliers more quickly. But western automakers will only catch up by accelerating their own efforts; not by waiting and hoping for internal troubles to slow China down.
Bloomberg
26 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
Stock Movers: Coinbase, FedEx, General Mills
On this edition of Stock Movers: - Coinbase (COIN) shares gain after Bernstein raised the target on the crypto trading platform to $510, a Street high and 48% above Tuesday's close, from $310. The company's revenue is set to more than double by 2027 as it benefits from strong trading growth, as well as non-trading revenue lines such as staking and stablecoins, analyst Gautam Chhugani wrote in a note to clients. - FedEx (FDX) shares sank after the carrier warned that its profit would be worse than expected this quarter and declined to offer guidance for the rest of the year, underscoring the significant impact that President Donald Trump's trade war continues to have on its business. The company's shares fell 5.6% as of 9:33 a.m. in New York on Wednesday after FedEx reported quarterly results, extending their slide for the year. The shipping giant's stock was down 18% in 2025 through Tuesday's close, while the S&P 500 index rose modestly over that span. - General Mills (GIS) shares fell after the food company reported a larger-than-expected drop in 4Q organic sales, driven by a 7% decline in its North America Retail segment. GIS also projects a steeper decline in annual adjusted EPS than the current consensus estimate. 'Our full-year sales trends did not meet our expectations, driven in part by continued value-seeking orientation and weaker consumer sentiment,' CEO Jeff Harmening said.
Bloomberg
29 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
US Accuses Three Mexican Financial Firms of Aiding Fentanyl Trafficking
The US government designated three Mexican financial firms as potential money launderers tied to illicit opioid trafficking, as it seeks to clamp down on cartel financing. The US Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, said it issued the orders 'as being of primary money laundering concern' against CIBanco SA, Intercam Banco SA and brokerage Vector Casa de Bolsa SA, according to a statement Wednesday.
