30 Best College Majors for the Future

Key Infor­ma­tion:

• Best majors for the future includes var­i­ous majors like Com­put­er Sci­ence and Bio­med­ical Engi­neer­ing, not­ing their poten­tial for high future earnings.
• These degrees are cho­sen for their promis­ing job oppor­tu­ni­ties and expect­ed demand in future job mar­kets.
• Empha­sis is placed on degrees that lead to careers with high mid-career salaries.
• Stu­dents are encour­aged to con­sid­er how their cho­sen major will affect their salary and job prospects in the long term.

Which bach­e­lor’s degrees will equip stu­dents to step into the high­est-pay­ing jobs? Choose from the best degrees and you can make bank right out of col­lege — and well into the future — with one of these lucra­tive careers!

This arti­cle was orig­i­nal­ly pub­lished in July 2023 and was last updat­ed in March 2024.

There are many fac­tors that a prospec­tive under­grad­u­ate stu­dent takes into con­sid­er­a­tion when con­tem­plat­ing which bachelor’s degree to pur­sue. Arguably one of the most impor­tant should be the way in which their major will improve their salary and job prospects in the future. 

For­tu­nate­ly, there are var­i­ous dif­fer­ent col­lege pro­grams avail­able that are not only enlight­en­ing and reward­ing but will help set bud­ding learn­ers up for excep­tion­al careers in lat­er life.

This list arti­cle show­cas­es the 30 types of bachelor’s degree cours­es that will most ben­e­fit stu­dents after grad­u­a­tion on the job mar­ket. Specif­i­cal­ly, the best col­lege majors for the future should equip learn­ers to go into roles with often excel­lent annu­al salaries. 

At the same time, enables them to enter fields where their knowl­edge ensures excep­tion­al job prospects in the years to come.

Relat­ed Rankings:

• Top 15 Under­grad Busi­ness Degrees
• 10 High­est-Pay­ing Engi­neer­ing Bachelor’s
• 25 Best Pay­ing Careers for Bach­e­lor’s Degree Grads
• Top 10 Bach­e­lor of Engi­neer­ing Degrees
• 11 Best Online Actu­ary Degree

Methodology: Highest Paying Bachelor’s Degrees for the Future

To devel­op this list arti­cle, we first stud­ied oth­er lists from respect­ed pub­li­ca­tions. These arti­cles iden­ti­fied, in the first instance, the bachelor’s degrees with the best future salary poten­tial. In the sec­ond, the pro­ject­ed best jobs for the future.

In order to sin­gle out our entries, we first iden­ti­fied the bachelor’s degrees with the best future salary poten­tial by using the rank­ings from PayScale, Glass­door, and George­town Uni­ver­si­ty. These three lists were then col­lat­ed into one by award­ing each degree cit­ed a weight­ed score. This scor­ing took into account both the total num­ber of entries on each list and where each degree ranks on those lists. These weight­ed scores were sub­se­quent­ly com­bined to give the Degree Rank­ing for each degree.

In the same way, we then iden­ti­fied the best jobs for the future. Using data from World Eco­nom­ic Forum, Busi­ness Insid­er, Kiplinger and Mic, we col­lat­ed the four lists into one to gen­er­ate an indi­vid­ual Future Job Score for each job. 

Again, the scores were weight­ed to take into account the total num­ber of entries on each list and where each job ranked on those lists. These weight­ed scores for each job were then matched with the degrees that qual­i­fy indi­vid­u­als to per­form these roles. This gave us an over­all Future Job Score for each degree.

Final­ly, we cal­cu­lat­ed the Over­all Score for col­lege degrees by adding the rel­e­vant Degree Rank­ing to its cor­re­spond­ing over­all Future Job Score.

Here’s an example:

For exam­ple, Com­put­er Sci­ence ranked third in the Degree Rank­ing, earn­ing it 97 points. To that fig­ure, the Future Job Scores for the jobs app devel­op­er (41), com­put­er sys­tems ana­lyst (37), com­put­er and infor­ma­tion sys­tems man­ag­er (26) and soft­ware sys­tems devel­op­er (21) were added – so 97 + 41 + 37 + 26 + 21 = 222. The Over­all Score for a Com­put­er Sci­ence degree was, then, 222.

It was on these Over­all Scores that the degrees were ulti­mate­ly ranked the best col­lege majors for the future.

1. Computer Science

These days, vir­tu­al­ly every com­pa­ny on the plan­et relies heav­i­ly on com­put­ers to keep their orga­ni­za­tions run­ning, and this is some­thing that’s unlike­ly to change any time soon. Hence, firms of all sizes – from small region­al busi­ness­es to house­hold-name brands – invari­ably need com­put­er spe­cial­ists who can swoop in to fix any tech prob­lems or swift­ly build user-friend­ly web­sites to clients’ specifications. 

It’s no won­der, then, that com­put­er sci­ence cours­es are some of the most pop­u­lar of their kind in U.S. col­leges today. Typ­i­cal­ly, com­put­er sci­ence majors not only learn how com­put­er hard­ware works but also how to find their way around cod­ing lan­guage pro­grams like Java and C++ – as well as more com­pli­cat­ed lan­guages such as Pro­log and Scheme. 

The skills learned from a com­put­er stud­ies bachelor’s degree open up the job mar­ket con­sid­er­ably to grad­u­ates in the field, with roles from com­put­er sys­tems ana­lyst to web devel­op­er all with­in reach for those with the required know-how. 

Such posi­tions are usu­al­ly well paid, too: accord­ing to 2022 sta­tis­tics from the BLS, the typ­i­cal soft­ware devel­op­er earns an impres­sive medi­an salary of $124,200. Per­haps even more promis­ing­ly, the BLS has esti­mat­ed that the need for peo­ple in these roles will only increase in the U.S. in the com­ing years.

2. Computer Science and Engineering

While com­put­er sci­ence degree cours­es may pro­vide a valu­able overview of the field, oth­er relat­ed pro­grams offer more spe­cial­ized insight and teach­ing for those look­ing to devel­op their skills in cer­tain areas of tech. 

In par­tic­u­lar, a com­put­er sci­ence and engi­neer­ing bachelor’s could be the ide­al choice for any­one who wish­es to learn both the basics of how com­put­ers work and how to devel­op and build their own hard­ware or soft­ware – handy skills in an age where we rely so heav­i­ly on technology. 

That knowl­edge, more­over, allows grad­u­ates to earn posi­tions vir­tu­al­ly any­where where sys­tems- and pro­gram-build­ing are need­ed – from devel­op­ing the vital traf­fic-con­trol tech­no­log­i­cal infra­struc­ture to craft­ing the soft­ware required for the smart homes of the future. 

And though earn­ings poten­tial nat­u­ral­ly depends on how much an employ­er is will­ing to give, PayScale’s 2022–2032 Col­lege Salary Report states that com­put­er sci­ence and engi­neer­ing bachelor’s grad­u­ates can each typ­i­cal­ly expect a medi­an salary amount­ing to $75,097 a year.

3. Information Technology

While com­put­er sci­ence and infor­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy – or IT for short – may seem like sim­i­lar fields, there are actu­al­ly marked dif­fer­ences between the two. For exam­ple, where­as com­put­er science’s focus is often pro­gram­ming, those in IT typ­i­cal­ly focus more on the man­age­ment and instal­la­tion of com­put­er sys­tems or the devel­op­ment of tech­no­log­i­cal networks. 

Under­grad­u­ates major­ing in IT will, then, usu­al­ly be sharp­en­ing their skills in the design, imple­men­ta­tion, and main­te­nance of such sys­tems as well as per­haps learn­ing about cru­cial relat­ed areas like infor­ma­tion security. 

As a result of this knowl­edge, more­over, grad­u­ates may be able to find work as net­work archi­tects, sup­port spe­cial­ists, or even research sci­en­tists – and accord­ing to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics, those in the for­mer occu­pa­tion earned a medi­an salary of $126,900 in 2022. 

In addi­tion, the bureau has stat­ed that the num­ber of com­put­er-relat­ed and IT posi­tions in the U.S. is set to rise by 4 per­cent in the years from 2022 to 2032.

4. Computer Science and Mathematics

As its name implies, a com­put­er sci­ence and math­e­mat­ics under­grad­u­ate degree caters to those who have inter­ests in com­put­er tech­nol­o­gy and the math­e­mat­i­cal equa­tions on which that tech­nol­o­gy is often based. In gen­er­al, a com­put­er sci­ence and math­e­mat­ics major exam­ines the ways in which both spheres inter­sect – through the math involved in cre­at­ing a suc­cess­ful algo­rithm, say. 

Con­se­quent­ly, while work­ing towards such a bachelor’s degree, stu­dents can learn valu­able and trans­fer­able skills such as prob­lem-solv­ing and crit­i­cal think­ing – skills that should boost their employ­a­bil­i­ty in a num­ber of roles both now and in the future. 

That said, what stu­dents have gleaned dur­ing their time in col­lege nat­u­ral­ly makes them par­tic­u­lar­ly suit­able for occu­pa­tions with a tech or math focus, whether that’s through pro­gram­ming or work­ing as a sta­tis­ti­cian. At any rate, com­put­er sci­ence and math­e­mat­ics grad­u­ates are gen­er­al­ly very hand­some­ly paid after they’ve entered employment. 

For instance, PayScale’s 2022–2032 Col­lege Salary Report has cal­cu­lat­ed that grads who majored in those fields will typ­i­cal­ly each earn a $189,400 a year medi­an salary.

5. Electrical Engineering

It prob­a­bly isn’t an over­state­ment to say that with­out elec­tric­i­ty, life as we know it would grind to a halt. The mas­sive pow­er grids that deliv­er that elec­tric­i­ty to our homes, busi­ness­es, and insti­tu­tions are typ­i­cal­ly main­tained by those with elec­tri­cal engi­neer­ing expertise. 

Indeed, with an elec­tri­cal engi­neer­ing degree under their belt, a grad­u­ate may be ful­ly equipped to assem­ble and man­age pow­er gen­er­a­tors and come up with the most effec­tive ways to trans­port the elec­tric­i­ty these cre­ate to where it’s needed. 

For­mer stu­dents in the field aren’t, how­ev­er, lim­it­ed to work­ing on projects such as these, since their degree is like­ly to equip them with the tech­ni­cal abil­i­ty to improve our telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions sys­tems, domes­tic appli­ances and com­put­er hard­ware, too. 

Bring­ing such exper­tise to the fore, then, elec­tri­cal engi­neers are gen­er­al­ly paid well dur­ing the mid­points of their careers: accord­ing to PayScale’s 2022–2032 Col­lege Salary Report, dur­ing that time those with bachelor’s degrees in the sub­ject each typ­i­cal­ly achieve earn­ings of a con­sid­er­able $91,844 per year.

6. Economics

Eco­nom­ics, in short, ana­lyzes the finan­cial work­ings of busi­ness­es and gov­ern­men­tal orga­ni­za­tions – in par­tic­u­lar, through the appor­tion­ing of the ser­vices and prod­ucts they pro­vide. Accord­ing­ly, study­ing for a bachelor’s degree in eco­nom­ics should give learn­ers cru­cial insights into how mon­ey is man­aged domes­ti­cal­ly and inter­na­tion­al­ly, whether that’s through inves­ti­gat­ing how fam­i­lies deal with their earn­ings or the ram­i­fi­ca­tions of the col­lapse of a whole nation’s economy. 

When it comes to future employ­ment, mean­while, grad­u­ates in the field are obvi­ous­ly well suit­ed to careers in areas like finan­cial con­sul­tan­cy and risk analy­sis that demand expert knowl­edge of eco­nom­ic mod­els and plans. And the roles that for­mer stu­dents go on to take up are often very lucra­tive themselves. 

For exam­ple, PayScale states that those with bachelor’s degrees in eco­nom­ics can typ­i­cal­ly expect a medi­an salary of $50,000.

7. Computer Engineering

Pri­mar­i­ly, com­put­er engi­neers are involved in devel­op­ing the tech­nol­o­gy nec­es­sary to make elec­tron­ic sys­tems work. As such, com­put­er engi­neer­ing majors will typ­i­cal­ly be taught how to cre­ate and imple­ment the likes of proces­sors, cir­cuit boards, and any oth­er mechan­i­cal parts inte­gral to com­put­ers’ func­tions. In addi­tion, they may be required to be able to design and suc­cess­ful­ly uti­lize com­put­er programs. 

But whether com­put­er engi­neer­ing bachelor’s grad­u­ates choose to lat­er search for roles in hard­ware or soft­ware devel­op­ment, their knowl­edge could well offer them a cer­tain amount of career secu­ri­ty in the future. Undoubt­ed­ly, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics has pro­ject­ed that demand for hard­ware engi­neers will grow by 5 percent. 

Mean­while, both hard­ware and soft­ware engi­neers are well remu­ner­at­ed: PayScale states that the medi­an annu­al salary in the U.S. for posi­tions in the field is $100,530.

8. Management Information Systems

Accord­ing to The Uni­ver­si­ty of Ari­zona, all stu­dents need for its man­age­ment infor­ma­tion sys­tems (MIS) pro­gram is “an inter­est in tech­nol­o­gy and the desire to use tech­nol­o­gy to improve people’s lives.” And as that state­ment sug­gests, MIS is a con­sid­er­ably more inter­per­son­al dis­ci­pline than either IT or com­put­er science. 

As a result, stu­dents major­ing in that area will like­ly look at infor­ma­tion net­works and data­bas­es with an eye to how they most use­ful­ly serve busi­ness­es and their cus­tomers and real­ize how tech­no­log­i­cal progress can ben­e­fit peo­ple as well as the industry. 

Plus, prospects for MIS grad­u­ates look great. As the U.S. Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics has pro­ject­ed, the num­ber of roles for those in IT and com­put­er-relat­ed fields is esti­mat­ed to increase by 5 per­cent by 2032. 

Mean­while, busi­ness ana­lyst roles – for which MIS grads are well equipped – offer sig­nif­i­cant salaries: on aver­age, $84,502 annu­al­ly, accord­ing to employ­ment web­site Indeed.

9. Electrical and Computer Engineering

Tech­no­log­i­cal progress has trans­formed our world with­in the past few decades, and that progress is not like­ly to slow down. For this rea­son, the career prospects of those with degrees in elec­tri­cal and com­put­er engi­neer­ing (ECE) look bright, since the skills they ought to have acquired dur­ing their time in edu­ca­tion should make them excep­tion­al­ly capa­ble of devel­op­ing the tech of the future. 

Their expe­ri­ence and know-how are valu­able in many dif­fer­ent are­nas, too. In the health­care sec­tor, for exam­ple, ECE grad­u­ates can con­tribute to advances in med­ical equip­ment, while in the field of renew­able ener­gy, they may devel­op envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly pow­er sys­tems that help save the planet. 

Fur­ther­more, there’s good news for ECE majors when it comes to finan­cial rewards, as PayScale’s 2022–2032 Col­lege Salary Report cal­cu­lates that those with bachelor’s degrees in the dis­ci­pline can typ­i­cal­ly each antic­i­pate sub­stan­tial mid-career earn­ings of $75,097 a year.

10. Finance

When flip­ping through col­lege brochures, prospec­tive stu­dents may come across the word “FAME.” This isn’t, how­ev­er, a major in how to become a celebri­ty; rather, it’s an acronym for the inter­twined sub­jects “Finance, Account­ing, Man­age­ment and Economics.” 

Still, while those study­ing for a bachelor’s degree in finance may not even­tu­al­ly become house­hold names, they can still com­mand envi­able salaries once they go into the world of work. Accord­ing to the BLS, finance grad­u­ates can each typ­i­cal­ly expect to secure mid-career year­ly earn­ings of $139,790.

That impres­sive fig­ure per­haps speaks to the val­ue of what stu­dents of finance typ­i­cal­ly learn on their degree cours­es, espe­cial­ly as expert knowl­edge of pri­vate equi­ty and ven­ture cap­i­tal schemes can help earn big bucks for com­pa­nies and clients alike. 

Fur­ther­more, the demand for finan­cial man­agers is grow­ing, with Busi­ness Insid­er esti­mat­ing that by 2032 there will be 69,600 more roles of that kind up for grabs in the U.S. than there were in 2014.

11. Accounting

For those prospec­tive stu­dents with a knack for num­bers and a keen eye for detail, a bachelor’s degree in account­ing could be the ide­al choice. And study­ing the dis­ci­pline should give them an excel­lent overview of the every­day, work­ing world respon­si­bil­i­ties of accoun­tants – among them, check­ing sales, allo­cat­ing employ­ee salaries and keep­ing tabs on the finan­cial incom­ings and out­go­ings of a busi­ness or an individual. 

Fur­ther­more, accoun­tan­cy majors ought to have excel­lent prospects for the future once they enter employ­ment. The BLS has esti­mat­ed, for instance, that the num­ber of new account­ing and audit­ing jobs in the U.S. will rise by 126,500 from 2022 to 2032. 

Plus, if any of those posi­tions don’t suit account­ing grad­u­ates, they’ll be hap­py to know that their degrees may equip them for careers in the likes of risk assess­ment and bud­get analysis. 

Accoun­tants will typ­i­cal­ly find high­ly sat­is­fac­to­ry num­bers in their bank accounts, too: the U.S. Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics states that the medi­an salary in the field is $78,000.

12. Chemical Engineering

Chem­i­cal engi­neer­ing is a more diverse dis­ci­pline than its name per­haps sug­gests. After all, at its core, it involves the cre­ation and pro­duc­tion of man­u­fac­tur­ing process­es that trans­form organ­ic mate­ri­als into prod­ucts like gas and arti­fi­cial fibers. This often neces­si­tates keen knowl­edge of biol­o­gy, math­e­mat­ics and physics as well as chemistry. 

In turn, grad­u­ates with a bachelor’s degree in chem­i­cal engi­neer­ing will also see the job mar­ket open up to them, as the nan­otech­nol­o­gy, alter­na­tive ener­gy and cloth­ing indus­tries, among oth­ers, all ben­e­fit from their valu­able skills and abil­i­ties. And employ­ers may pay well for the knowl­edge that chem­i­cal engi­neers possess. 

PayScale’s 2022–2032 Col­lege Salary Report cal­cu­lates that the typ­i­cal mid-career medi­an salary for indi­vid­u­als with under­grad­u­ate degrees in chem­i­cal engi­neer­ing is a thor­ough­ly sat­is­fac­to­ry $106,220. Mean­while, the num­ber of U.S. jobs avail­able to grad­u­ates in the field is, accord­ing to the BLS, set to increase by 8 per­cent in the ten years lead­ing up to 2032.

13. Systems Engineering

Unlike some areas of engi­neer­ing – which often con­cern them­selves with devel­op­ing spe­cif­ic com­po­nents of pieces of hard­ware or soft­ware devel­op­ment – sys­tems engi­neer­ing deals with the out­come and sta­bil­i­ty of a project as a whole. 

In the field, sys­tems engi­neers must not only ensure that every part of a par­tic­u­lar net­work is run­ning smooth­ly; they must also con­sid­er bud­gets, dead­lines, and the reli­a­bil­i­ty of ele­ments involved in a sys­tem over a pro­longed peri­od of time. 

As a con­se­quence, sys­tems engi­neer­ing cours­es should teach learn­ers more than just tech know-how. For exam­ple, busi­ness man­age­ment and how to com­mu­ni­cate most effec­tive­ly could both be cov­ered in degree pro­grams, as skills in these areas may be invalu­able when stu­dents enter employ­ment. Indeed, through the acqui­si­tion of such skills, earn­ing a sys­tems engi­neer­ing bachelor’s degree should cer­tain­ly reap finan­cial rewards. 

Whether grad­u­ates go into petro­le­um, elec­tron­ic or envi­ron­men­tal sys­tems engi­neer­ing, accord­ing to the BLS, they can each typ­i­cal­ly antic­i­pate a medi­an salary of $139,220.

14. Physics

For those wish­ing to learn more about life, the uni­verse, and every­thing in it, there are few bet­ter degree options than physics. Learn­ers may find them­selves inspired to fol­low in the foot­steps of renowned physi­cists like Albert Ein­stein, who famous­ly advanced the now-piv­otal gen­er­al the­o­ry of rel­a­tiv­i­ty, and Stephen Hawk­ing, who trans­formed con­sen­sus in the field on the behav­ior of black holes. 

They might even find them­selves at NASA, which offers intern­ships at its Applied Physics Lab­o­ra­to­ry. Nat­u­ral­ly, bright minds in pos­ses­sion of a bachelor’s degree in physics can devel­op their own the­ses through the con­tin­u­a­tion of their stud­ies. But if they choose to go into the world of work instead, they’ll find their knowl­edge a boon in spheres as diverse as med­i­cine, edu­ca­tion and even the law. 

Those with bachelor’s degrees in the dis­ci­pline each typ­i­cal­ly com­mand mid-career earn­ings of $139,220 a year.

15. Mathematics

Most busi­ness­es need employ­ees with great heads for num­bers and data – and, by and large, math grad­u­ates fit that bill. Cer­tain­ly, they’re well suit­ed to becom­ing mar­ket research ana­lysts, a role for which Busi­ness Insid­er has pro­ject­ed 94,600 new open­ings in the U.S. from 2022 to 2032. 

But the future work prospects of math majors needn’t be lim­it­ed to just the finan­cial indus­tries. Those with a love of tech and its intri­ca­cies may find them­selves at home as com­put­er pro­gram­mers or soft­ware devel­op­ers, for exam­ple. While it may not seem an obvi­ous fit on the sur­face, neu­ro­science, too, could ben­e­fit from the exper­tise of math­e­mat­ics graduates. 

Pro­fes­sion­als with bachelor’s degrees in math­e­mat­ics can each typ­i­cal­ly expect to earn an impres­sive $110,575 per year at the mid­points of their careers.

16. Electronics and Communication Engineering

In an increas­ing­ly dig­i­tal­ly con­nect­ed world, those with elec­tron­ics and com­mu­ni­ca­tion engi­neer­ing degrees are well-placed to find employ­ment. After all, the com­mu­ni­ca­tions tech­nolo­gies that under­pin life for many need to be devel­oped and sus­tained. Elec­tron­ics and com­mu­ni­ca­tion engi­neer­ing majors should even­tu­al­ly learn how to make exact­ly that happen. 

Fur­ther­more, while this nat­u­ral­ly makes grad­u­ates in the field good can­di­dates to become future elec­tri­cal engi­neers – par­tic­u­lar­ly when it comes to the cre­ation and main­te­nance of spe­cif­ic devices – they may be more than capa­ble of tak­ing up roles in com­put­ing, telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions or even the aero­space indus­try.

For those who just want to take home decent pay­checks, though, a col­lege major in elec­tron­ics and com­mu­ni­ca­tion engi­neer­ing should nev­er­the­less help. 

Accord­ing to The Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics, grad­u­ates in this field typ­i­cal­ly each earn a $105,113 a year medi­an salary.

17. Finance and Economics

While it’s per­fect­ly pos­si­ble to major in either finance or eco­nom­ics, there are def­i­nite advan­tages to study­ing for a col­lege major that com­bines both sub­jects. After all, such a pro­gram may not only give under­grad­u­ates a the­o­ret­i­cal overview of the world­wide trade of mon­ey and the many eco­nom­ic mod­els in exis­tence but also pre­pare them for the work­ing world by teach­ing trans­fer­able mar­ket­ing and man­age­ment skills. 

As a result, finance and eco­nom­ics grad­u­ates should be good fits for future roles in bank­ing and insur­ance. And the out­look is bright for those who choose to be finan­cial ana­lysts after col­lege, too. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics has esti­mat­ed that there is set to be an 8‑percent increase in the num­ber of posi­tions avail­able to them in the ten years lead­ing up to 2032. 

More­over, in 2022 finan­cial ana­lysts brought in envi­able medi­an salaries of $96,220, accord­ing to the bureau.

18. Mechanical Engineering

Described by Colum­bia Uni­ver­si­ty as “per­haps the broad­est and most diverse of engi­neer­ing dis­ci­plines,” mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing deals with the con­cep­tion and con­struc­tion of indi­vid­ual parts for the likes of machin­ery, vehi­cles, and elec­tron­ic devices. 

Key to the field, more­over, is a detailed knowl­edge and appli­ca­tion of physics. After all, ther­mo­dy­nam­ics and heat trans­fer both need to be tak­en into con­sid­er­a­tion when it comes to mak­ing suc­cess­ful air­plane parts, for example. 

Cer­tain­ly, such knowl­edge will be put to the test if grad­u­ates land jobs with NASA, The Boe­ing Com­pa­ny, or Lock­heed Mar­tin – all among the top five employ­ers of mechan­i­cal engi­neers in the U.S., accord­ing to a 2013 study by The Engi­neer­ing Career Coach. For those of more of a techie bent, how­ev­er, roles with Google, Apple and Microsoft are emi­nent­ly achiev­able, too. 

In any case, bachelor’s in mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing grad­u­ates mid­way through their careers should be com­fort­ably off, as PayScale’s 2022–2032 Col­lege Salary Report reveals that they earn medi­an salaries of $86,678.

19. Business

For any­one still chas­ing the Amer­i­can Dream, set­ting up and run­ning a suc­cess­ful com­pa­ny may be the way to real­ize it. Bud­ding entre­pre­neurs can cer­tain­ly learn a lot from a col­lege major in busi­ness – typ­i­cal­ly, every­thing from mar­ket­ing to account­ing and the art of negotiation. 

If stu­dents with­in the dis­ci­pline don’t have the desire to start their own firms, though, then they can still have suc­cess­ful careers in sales, finan­cial ser­vices, or mar­ket­ing, to name just a few fields. More­over, after com­plet­ing their col­lege degrees, such indi­vid­u­als are like­ly to do well financially. 

Busi­ness grad­u­ates have some of the largest aver­age start­ing salaries around, at $60,695 apiece. Mean­while, a recent study by ThinkAd­vi­sor has report­ed that chief invest­ment offi­cers – rep­re­sent­ing one of the roles that ought to even­tu­al­ly be up for grabs for those who have majored in busi­ness – earned high­ly impres­sive medi­an mid-career salaries of $186,000.

20. Nursing

Any­one con­sid­er­ing a career as a reg­is­tered nurse may want to thank their lucky stars, for the role has the high­est pro­ject­ed growth of any occu­pa­tion in the U.S., accord­ing to a Busi­ness Insid­er. Indeed, the site states that there will be an esti­mat­ed 193,100 new posts for reg­is­tered nurs­es from 2022 to 2032. 

It’s not all good news, though. Once nurs­ing grad­u­ates take their first ten­ta­tive steps into the pro­fes­sion­al world, they may be greet­ed with gru­el­ing and unso­cia­ble work­ing hours and phys­i­cal­ly labo­ri­ous tasks to ful­fill. Still, for those who per­se­vere past the end of their stud­ies and through the demands of the job, there are sig­nif­i­cant finan­cial rewards to be had. 

Mid-career, grad­u­ates with bachelor’s degrees in nurs­ing can typ­i­cal­ly each com­mand a medi­an salary of $81,220.

21. Statistics

Although sta­tis­tics is close­ly aligned with math­e­mat­ics – and, indeed, the sub­ject is typ­i­cal­ly fea­tured in col­lege math cours­es – it’s also com­mon­ly offered as a stand-alone col­lege major choice at U.S. uni­ver­si­ties. It’s one of the great col­lege majors for the future, and the focus is clear. 

Under­grad­u­ate stu­dents in sta­tis­tics pro­grams should learn how to engage with data. Specif­i­cal­ly, col­lat­ing it, scru­ti­niz­ing it, and under­stand­ing what the infor­ma­tion it pro­vides means in wider con­texts. Such skills are, more­over, emi­nent­ly trans­fer­able, as indus­tries from adver­tis­ing to phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals all require indi­vid­u­als to inter­pret the stats that they produce. 

Plus, sta­tis­ti­cians’ future job prospects may be rosy, accord­ing to Google chief econ­o­mist Hal Var­i­an. In a 2008 inter­view with McK­in­sey & Company’s James Manyi­ka, Var­i­an described sta­tis­tics as “the sexy job” of the future, since “the abil­i­ty to take data… [will] be a huge­ly impor­tant skill in the next decades.”

Whether or not Varian’s words come to pass, though, those with bachelor’s degrees in sta­tis­tics can at least expect to be well paid while they wait to find out. 

PayScale’s 2022–2032 Col­lege Salary Report states that they will typ­i­cal­ly each earn $60,000 a year dur­ing the first stages of their careers, ris­ing to salaries of $86,832 at the mid­points of their work­ing lives.

22. Physics and Mathematics

Inter­est­ing­ly, physics and math­e­mat­ics over­lap in sev­er­al often impor­tant ways. Indeed, sev­er­al prin­ci­ples of physics – such as ther­mo­dy­nam­ics – have been devel­oped using meth­ods derived from math­e­mat­ics. Math con­tin­ues to play an impor­tant part in the­o­ret­i­cal physics to this day. 

Per­haps as a result of this sym­bio­sis, the two dis­ci­plines are some­times com­bined into dual bachelor’s pro­grams that are ide­al for stu­dents with an inter­est in both sub­jects or who are still not quite sure about their future career prospects. When it comes to even­tu­al­ly enter­ing the world of work, how­ev­er, physics and math­e­mat­ics majors may find their skills a per­fect fit in many indus­tries, includ­ing finance, soft­ware devel­op­ment, design, and economics. 

They could even trans­late to a career as an aero­space engi­neer, a role for which the U.S. Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics report­ed a medi­an salary of $126,880 in 2022.

23. Applied Mathematics

Like sta­tis­tics, applied math­e­mat­ics is a spe­cial­ized dis­ci­pline that often over­laps with oth­er spheres of study. For any­one who’d like more in-depth instruc­tion in the field, though, an applied math­e­mat­ics col­lege major pro­gram could be just the ticket. 

Applied math­e­mat­ics itself has been defined by North­west­ern Uni­ver­si­ty as “the appli­ca­tion of math­e­mat­ics to real-world prob­lems.” Its meth­ods are uti­lized by a vari­ety of busi­ness­es for prac­ti­cal reasons. 

For exam­ple, an auto­mo­tive com­pa­ny may want to find a way to reduce pro­duc­tion costs while still man­u­fac­tur­ing vehi­cles that meet safe­ty and envi­ron­men­tal stan­dards. A phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal cor­po­ra­tion could use applied math­e­mat­ics to cre­ate bal­anced and accu­rate clin­i­cal trials. 

Study­ing for a degree in the sub­ject should, then, afford learn­ers math­e­mat­i­cal insight that can prove ben­e­fi­cial to these indus­tries and more. The rewards are cer­tain­ly numer­ous in the pro­fes­sion­al world. Forbes ranked applied math­e­mat­ics as one of the top ten most valu­able col­lege majors avail­able when it comes to future earn­ing potential. 

More recent­ly, mean­while, BLS cal­cu­lat­ed that grad­u­ates with bachelor’s degrees in the dis­ci­pline should typ­i­cal­ly each go on to earn a siz­able mid-career salary of $99,960.

24. Petroleum Engineering

For prospec­tive stu­dents with a love of geol­o­gy and a tal­ent for build­ing things, an under­grad­u­ate degree in petro­le­um engi­neer­ing might be the way to go. With the knowl­edge acquired from a col­lege major in the sub­ject under their belt, a petro­le­um engi­neer­ing grad­u­ate should be able to turn their hand to find­ing hid­den deposits of gas and crude oil, extract­ing these fos­sil fuels, and refin­ing them into usable products. 

There’s also scope for those who wish to hone in on par­tic­u­lar aspects of the process by becom­ing spe­cial­ist reser­voir or pro­duc­tion engi­neers, for instance. At the same time, petro­le­um engi­neer­ing majors can look for­ward to very healthy pay­checks if they use their learn­ing to enter the field. 

BLS.org esti­mates, for exam­ple, that bachelor’s in petro­le­um engi­neer­ing hold­ers typ­i­cal­ly earn a remark­able $76,960 per year towards the begin­nings of their careers, while for mid-career salaries that fig­ure is an excep­tion­al $131,800.

25. Electrical and Electronics Engineering

While they may sound like sim­i­lar dis­ci­plines, elec­tri­cal engi­neer­ing, and elec­tron­ics engi­neer­ing diverge on many key lev­els. Elec­tri­cal engi­neer­ing, for instance, gen­er­al­ly focus­es on the gen­er­a­tion and sup­ply of elec­tric­i­ty and the meth­ods by which we obtain power. 

Elec­tron­ic engi­neer­ing, on the oth­er hand, is com­mon­ly con­cerned with cre­at­ing devices and hard­ware that use such pow­er – any­thing from robots to com­put­er cir­cuit boards. If a prospec­tive stu­dent choos­es to study for a col­lege major in elec­tri­cal and elec­tron­ics engi­neer­ing, then their increas­ing famil­iar­i­ty with both fields ought to boost the range of roles that they can con­ceiv­ably go for after graduation. 

Nat­u­ral­ly, these may include more gen­er­al posi­tions as an elec­tri­cal engi­neer or an elec­tron­ics engi­neer. How­ev­er, there’s also the poten­tial for careers in the aero­space and nuclear ener­gy arenas. 

Plus, there’s good news on the pay front: accord­ing to 2022 data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics, elec­tri­cal and elec­tron­ics engi­neers earn medi­an annu­al salaries of $104,610.

26. Industrial Engineering

Though indus­tri­al engi­neer­ing degrees might con­jure up images of fac­to­ries and mech­a­niza­tion, stu­dents of the dis­ci­pline needn’t find them­selves pre­sid­ing over noisy, com­pli­cat­ed appa­ra­tus in the future. Indeed, indus­tri­al engi­neer­ing majors may be equal­ly well equipped for careers in bank­ing, the media or even in government. 

That’s because the sci­en­tif­ic and math­e­mat­i­cal approach­es they learn at the under­grad­u­ate degree lev­el ought to enable them to devel­op sys­tems and process­es for a diverse array of orga­ni­za­tions. What’s more, the inter­per­son­al and prob­lem-solv­ing skills that indus­tri­al engi­neers may well use on the job ought to serve them well in oth­er careers, too. 

That said, accord­ing to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics, there will be an increas­ing num­ber of oppor­tu­ni­ties for those who wish to stick with indus­tri­al engi­neer­ing. A nice total of 38,400 new roles are pro­ject­ed in the field every year from 2022 to 2032. The Bureau fur­ther­more records that in 2022 indus­tri­al engi­neers took home medi­an salaries of $96,350.

27. Industrial Distribution

Indus­tri­al dis­tri­b­u­tion might not imme­di­ate­ly spring to mind when choos­ing a major is on the cards. A degree in the dis­ci­pline could be a good bet for col­lege majors in the future. 

A recent sur­vey of the sec­tor by Indus­tri­al Dis­tri­b­u­tion mag­a­zine found that 39 per­cent of employ­ers find locat­ing appro­pri­ate appli­cants dif­fi­cult. As a result, grad­u­ates with decent knowl­edge of indus­tri­al dis­tri­b­u­tion may find them­selves in good stead when it comes to land­ing jobs. 

What’s more, the need for such indi­vid­u­als is ris­ing. Indus­tri­al Careers Path­way is pro­ject­ing that over the next decade 4.7 mil­lion new jobs in the field will be cre­at­ed in North Amer­i­ca alone. So, what does indus­tri­al dis­tri­b­u­tion entail? 

In essence, it deals with the sale and sup­ply of items to cor­po­ra­tions, man­u­fac­tur­ers, and dis­trib­u­tors. Stu­dents of indus­tri­al dis­tri­b­u­tion are like­ly to also dip their toes into aspects of math, sci­ence, data man­age­ment, and qual­i­ty con­trol along the way. 

In terms of finan­cial remu­ner­a­tion, mean­while, indi­vid­u­als with bachelor’s degrees in this sub­ject can each typ­i­cal­ly look for­ward to an attrac­tive mid-career salary of $189,400.

28. Actuarial Science

Antic­i­pat­ing future finan­cial trends always comes with a sig­nif­i­cant amount of risk. Even skilled econ­o­mists and busi­ness majors can’t pre­dict every change in world­wide mar­kets. For­tu­nate­ly, though, indi­vid­u­als with knowl­edge of actu­ar­i­al sci­ence can help assess prob­a­ble sce­nar­ios and so hope­ful­ly min­i­mize poten­tial losses. 

Actu­ar­i­al sci­ence typ­i­cal­ly uti­lizes math­e­mat­i­cal and sta­tis­ti­cal data to ascer­tain the prob­a­bil­i­ties of such events occur­ring. In the process, it helps cre­ate an under­stand­ing of how com­pa­nies can safe­ly adapt to unfore­seen cir­cum­stances. This dis­ci­pline is wide­ly used in the insur­ance sec­tor. Know­ing the like­li­hood of cat­a­stro­phes both nat­ur­al and man-made can help firms set their pre­mi­ums at man­age­able levels.

By bring­ing such knowl­edge to bear, the job prospects avail­able to actu­ar­i­al sci­ence grad­u­ates are impres­sive. Actu­ar­ies earn medi­an salaries of $113,900 and there is a “very good” chance of growth in the field in the future.

29. Biomedical Engineering

Where­as many engi­neers work with mechan­i­cal devices and com­po­nents, bio­med­ical engi­neers deal with per­haps the most com­pli­cat­ed machine of all: the human body. Accord­ing­ly, those in bio­med­ical engi­neer­ing under­grad­u­ate degree pro­grams ought to be involved in find­ing answers to med­ical prob­lems by cre­at­ing tech­no­log­i­cal devices and sys­tems that work successfully. 

In the past, cer­tain­ly, prac­ti­tion­ers in the field have made their mark. They have con­tributed to advance­ments in pros­thet­ics, pace­mak­ers, and replace­ment organs. Their work on the likes of X‑rays and robot­ic surgery may have indi­rect­ly saved a num­ber of lives. Yet the sat­is­fac­tion of help­ing peo­ple get back on their feet isn’t the only reward on offer for bio­med­ical engineers. 

To wit, the Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics’ 2022 Col­lege Salary Report cal­cu­lat­ed that those with bachelor’s degrees in bio­med­ical engi­neer­ing can typ­i­cal­ly each expect a mid-career salary of $99,550. Mean­while, they also state that the num­ber of bio­med­ical engi­neer­ing roles is set to rise by 5 per­cent from 2022 to 2032.

30. Civil Engineering

Prac­ti­cal­ly any­one who’s spent time liv­ing or work­ing in a big city has ben­e­fit­ed from the exper­tise of civ­il engi­neers. Indeed, while their pro­fes­sion­al respon­si­bil­i­ties are numer­ous, the duties of civ­il engi­neers can be boiled down to one sen­tence: they keep life moving. 

Not only do they map out, cre­ate and main­tain the roads, rail­way lines and sub­ways that keep peo­ple in tran­sit, but they also man­age unseen links, like the sewage net­works that run under a metrop­o­lis’ streets. 

The breadth of sys­tems in which civ­il engi­neers have their hands – from trans­porta­tion to water man­age­ment and even emerg­ing fields such as envi­ron­men­tal engi­neer­ing degrees – means that stu­dents pur­su­ing bachelor’s degrees in this sub­ject are more than like­ly to find career paths that best fit their unique skills. 

Once they’re in the mid­dle of their careers as pro­fes­sion­al civ­il engi­neers, more­over, they can each typ­i­cal­ly expect an impres­sive annu­al salary of $89,940, accord­ing to the Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics’ 2022 Col­lege Salary Report.

What Makes a Major a Good Choice for the Future?

A “future-proof” major is one that cen­ters around a skill that is always need­ed by soci­ety at large. 

So, how do you iden­ti­fy a degree that sup­ports you in a suc­cess­ful career through­out your work­ing years? You could enter into one of the STEM fields as the demand for peo­ple with a STEM edu­ca­tion will always be strong. 

But what if you don’t have the apti­tude for these fields? 

How do you iden­ti­fy col­lege majors that won’t leave you strug­gling to earn a living?

The good news is, that STEM fields are not the only types of well-pay­ing col­lege majors out there. The world needs vet­eri­nar­i­ans, social work­ers, psy­chother­a­pists, and con­struc­tion man­agers. These are careers that require a bach­e­lor’s degree at a min­i­mum and have skills that can be par­layed into oth­er career paths. 

As you con­sid­er the col­lege majors that work best for you, also look at ones that have flex­i­bil­i­ty in terms of switch­ing careers. For exam­ple, you want to become a teacher, but you may find that it’s not a career for you, and you want to switch to some­thing else. One aspect of teach­ing is peo­ple man­age­ment, and you can eas­i­ly switch to a human resources career with a pro­fes­sion­al cer­tifi­cate in HR.

Con­sid­er your skills and apti­tudes as you con­sid­er the best col­lege majors for the future. You’re going to be spend­ing the next 40 or so years of your life work­ing, and you want your edu­ca­tion to be in align­ment with your per­son­al strengths. 

Don’t go into a degree pro­gram sim­ply because it seems like it’s one of the best degrees for the future. Instead, put your­self first and look at career paths that fall with­in your skillsets, then look into col­lege majors that offer the best match.

Why Does Tech Get So Much Love?

Tech is some­thing that affects our dai­ly lives and needs peo­ple who can build, repair, main­tain, and code to make tech work for var­i­ous needs and uses. Col­lege majors for the future have to include a field that accom­mo­dates a wide range of peo­ple with dif­fer­ent apti­tudes and tal­ents for tech. 

Some­one who has math­e­mat­i­cal tal­ents and an ana­lyt­i­cal mind will do well as a pro­gram­mer, while some­one who can blend art with tech­nol­o­gy can find work in user expe­ri­ence (UX) design. 

Cyber­se­cu­ri­ty and arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence experts are expect­ed to be in high demand for years to come (BLS). Data sci­ence isn’t going any­where, so the job oppor­tu­ni­ties for a data ana­lyst are incredible. 

The tech field also accom­mo­dates those who can under­stand and write code, but don’t want to pro­gram. Work­ing as an IT admin­is­tra­tor or in a cloud com­put­ing facil­i­ty is an excel­lent career path and is one that pays well. 

Adding the com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills of the lib­er­al arts will expand your employ­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties even more. Spe­cial­iza­tions are great, but make sure you have course­work that enhances the most in-demand soft skills.

Are Medical Majors Always Good for the Future?

Yes, med­ical majors are good degrees for the future. Peo­ple are always going to need med­ical care through­out their lives, and med­ical pro­fes­sion­als are always going to be in demand. If you enjoy help­ing oth­ers in times of need, the med­ical field is a good choice for col­lege majors in the future.

The field of med­i­cine offers mul­ti­ple degree path­ways that get you start­ed work­ing in the field at all lev­els. You can begin by earn­ing a CNA cer­tifi­cate and get­ting a feel for the type of work a health­care work­er per­forms on a dai­ly basis. 

If you enjoy the work, you can return to col­lege and get an asso­ci­ate’s degree in nurs­ing, then sit for the NCLEX to get your reg­is­tered nurs­ing license. After you earn your RN, you can go on to get a bach­e­lor of sci­ence in nurs­ing and expand your career options even further.