Asger Risom
A new New York Federal Reserve study reveals that engineering degrees heavily dominate the highest-paying college majors within five years of graduation, while tech executives warn that high expectations can still hinder early-career success.
With college tuition setting students back an average of $38,270 per year, modern undergraduates are increasingly banking on their degrees to unlock lucrative career paths. However, landing a top-paying job depends heavily on the specific field of study chosen.
According to a recent study by the New York Federal Reserve, anyone hoping to earn big money straight out of college should seriously consider entering the technology and engineering sectors. The research reveals that a staggering 80 percent of the top ten college majors with the highest incomes five years after graduation are engineering degrees.
Computer engineering graduates take the absolute top spot, boasting a median early-career salary of $90,000 just a few years after tossing their graduation caps. The only non-engineering disciplines to break into the top ten are the heavily adjacent field of computer science, paying an impressive $87,000, and finance, which rounds out the list at an expected $70,000 per year.
The financial reality of the humanities and life sciences
In stark contrast to the massive paychecks enjoyed by the tech sector, students who choose to major in the liberal arts or humanities can expect to earn roughly half as much as their engineering peers.
Within five years of graduating, students holding degrees in theology, religion, performing arts, and general liberal arts tie for the worst-paying post-college outcomes. According to the data, these early-career starters are earning an average of just $38,000 to $45,000 annually, severely lagging behind the rest of their graduating class.
Even more surprisingly, while previous generations viewed the medical field as an automatic golden ticket, certain life sciences are now falling behind. Degrees in miscellaneous biological sciences, treatment therapy, and nutrition are included on the list of low-paying majors, capping out at around $50,000. For context, the national median personal income across the entire United States sits at $45,180.
Resilience and the danger of high expectations
Despite the clear financial advantage of an engineering degree, prominent tech leaders warn that an elite education will not automatically guarantee real-world success.
Jensen Huang, the cofounder and CEO of Nvidia, believes that entering the workforce with exceptionally high expectations can actually make it significantly harder for recent graduates to thrive. During a recent interview at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, he explained that high expectations often lead to very low resilience, which is a critical trait for long-term success.
Huang controversially wished the elite students “ample doses of pain and suffering” to help them build the necessary grit for their careers. He emphasized that true greatness and resilience are forged through overcoming hardships and navigating failure, rather than simply coasting on high intelligence and an expensive degree.
