The HIGHEST-PAYING College Degrees (PHOTOS)

Each winter, the National Association for Colleges and Employers determines the best-paying college degrees for recent graduates. For the 1,634,000 students finishing college this year, here's a hint: Get out your calculator. And start looking for oil.

• • • • • • • • • • Petroleum Engineering Average Starting Salary: $86,220

Comments

[Jonathan Michael Lloyd]

08:09 PM on 05/09/2010

Not sure what the criteria here is. Obviously some medical degrees are way higher than these. Pharmacists getting out of college routinely get +100,000.

[Lachlan Prescott]

02:10 AM on 05/07/2010

Engineering is boring. I made the right choice when I dropped chemical engineering and went to medical school instead.

[Yestfl]

12:14 AM on 05/07/2010

I am a civil engineering student, ready to graduate, and that engineering didn't even make the list. :(
Maybe I should do Geotech... hmmm...

[B Cryer]

10:27 PM on 05/06/2010

Why bother to be specific? Just say computers and engineering. I get it!

[Theemystro]

08:46 PM on 04/29/2010

alot of rich nerds

[KateInMT]

01:03 AM on 05/23/2010

Geeks, not nerds. There's a big difference.

[loki]

11:43 PM on 04/19/2010

Im so glad huffpo finally came to the current century and figured out how to change photos without refreshing the whole page each time. Welcome to the year 2001 Huffpo.

[veritas88]

12:55 AM on 04/16/2010

so basically it's all engineering! i know a lot of engineering majors and i find them impressive as it seems like an impossible course of study to me. (also, my dad is a chemical engineer and having looked at some of his work documents, they might as well be written in Mandarin). but what about the science majors (bio, chem, psych?). pre-meds (who become doctors) often go into very lucrative jobs.

[confuseddemocrat]

06:16 AM on 04/16/2010

you are right

Nurses make about 50K
Pharmacists about 110K
PT about 65K
Business Majors (if they can find a job) about 50-75K

As for MDs...the ridiculously high costs of tuition plus years as interns and residents...really impact earning power....it is starting to be a less "lucrative" major........

[belyeu]

07:01 PM on 04/16/2010

"As for MDs...the ridiculously high costs of tuition plus years as interns and residents...really impact earning power....it is starting to be a less "lucrative" major........"

Really, starting salary for 1st year psychiatrist is around 220k.

Orthopedist is around 250-400k

Hand specialist is around 450k

Anesthesiologist pain management around 400K

[loki]

11:47 PM on 04/19/2010

I have 8 engineers in my family. family reunions are hilarious as they all think they know more than the other. But even though they all make decent money, none are living the high life for the amount of work they do. I went with an international Business degree and am doing very well. Not as good as some because I refuse to be dishonest and lie to people just to make an extra dollar, but Im doing much better than any of the engineers in my family. Now as for who does the greater good for the human race in general? Its the engineers by a mile.

[larry278]

06:34 PM on 04/15/2010

The picture of the high-tec water pipe is neat. Copies will sell well. Has anybody patented it yet? It's real neat.

[Senseid]

08:17 AM on 04/15/2010

Unfortunately, name brand matters. The better the school, the more opportunities you will likely have. Go to a good state school, save money, and then work your hardest to get into a top notch school like Harvard, Stanford, Yale, etc., for grad school once you figure out what field/industry you want to work in (whether it's business, law, engineering, etc.) You will most likely see a much better return on 1-2 years in a top grad school than in 4 years at a any given undergrad institution.

[loki]

11:51 PM on 04/19/2010

Or if you mommy and daddy is very rich, you can go to an ivy greed school, learn nothing, and make millions just because your now part of the IVy Greed cult. Which is where an overwhelming amount of people graduated from who were at the helm of every single economical disaster the US has seen in the last 120 years. Sure going to the ivy greed schools ensure a better income, but it also almost always insure your going to lock stepped with the most evil and corrupt in our history . If I see an Ivy greed diploma on a wall, no matter what the profession, I will not trust them. And that includes doctors. Which by the way, some of the best doctors I know actually went to NYU

[wolfdogNM]

06:39 PM on 05/06/2010

Capt. "W" sure did ground that tanker the USS Ecconomy, and he got one of those Ivy greed school degrees.

[michelv]

12:14 AM on 04/14/2010

The secret to making lots of money is to be at the business end of any field. Doctors and dentists who own their own successful practices make significantly more than those who work for others. Ditto for lawyers. Engineers who do incredible work get merely paid salaries. Those who market and sell the work of these engineers make gobs of money.The same is true for "vocational" fields. Those electricians and plumbers who own their own businesses can make huge sums of money (especially during the housing bubble), but those who work for them get paid by the hour.

That's the way it is in the U.S.

[hypnotoad72]

01:33 PM on 04/14/2010

True. And that's why all our laws are geared to help small businesses! :-D

[loki]

11:52 PM on 04/19/2010

They use too. But starting with the Granddaddy of the most recent corrupt of the corrupt Reagan, big business uses the Small Business spin to get laws passed that hurt small businesses and help big business more.

[michelv]

12:09 AM on 04/14/2010

>> I know a lot of unemployed engineers, especially in the over age 50 category. Can't say the same for MD's.

Of course! In the hard sciences and engineering, you need continuous development of new skills and rapid assimilation of new knowledge. As you get older, family commitments, declining energy, declining learning capacity, work environments, etc., all make it harder to keep up with the latest and greatest, especially for those doing research/advanced work. So many move on to sales, the lucky ones into management, many lose their jobs, and the tenacious one make it until the end. You are also always competing with fresh grads who have been taught the latest and greatest, and who have all the time and energy they need.

When you become a clinical MD or a practicing lawyer, the pace of change in the field is comparatively extremely slow, often just requiring a couple of continuing ed course (in Hawaii, for example), and occasionally retaking a board exams. That's why most people who start as doctors and lawyers retire as such. The same cannot be said in sciences and engineering.

[MikeyMike]

03:47 PM on 04/14/2010

Yeah, old people can't learn.

OTOH, we recently found and hired a 65 year old math guy turned computer programmer. None of us could figure out FORTRAN. The man is a god among geeks. Truly. He saved us all.

[michelv]

01:46 AM on 04/15/2010

Those who make a successful effort of continuously learning throughout their lives can still learn when they are old. It's just that that is so hard to do that very few succeed.

Now if someone who knows Java/C/C++/etc. cannot quickly learn Fortran, there there is something seriously wrong with him :-)

[loki]

11:56 PM on 04/19/2010

Old people can learn, and can do a great job. Just businesses know that old people are as Street dumb, as the younger people straight out of university. What I mean is that younger people usually have not experienced the screwing by corporations that the older people have, and are much more gullible and controllable. So when you hire an older person and ask them to do something they know is illegal, they older person will usually refuse. While the younger person doesnt know, and through ignorance believes the manager and does as told without question. And when the corporation gets caught, the younger person is the scape goat. The older person is much more clued in and more likely to perform CYA.

[belyeu]

07:04 PM on 04/16/2010

MD's Nurses, PA's, XRay, respiratory, techs all must have continued education.

[michelv]

02:24 AM on 04/18/2010

Yeah, I did say that, but you missed the important part: their continuing ed is NOTHING like that required in advanced sciences and engineering.

[loki]

12:00 AM on 04/20/2010

Problem too is that there are a very limited number of positions open for Xray, Resp techs and others in any metropolis. I know just in St. Louis there are over 2000 a year graduating, and only a couple hundred positions, all of which are filled by long time employees who are not willingly going to give up a great position .
Just like with MBA's in the 80, IT and Teachers in the 2000's , and more recently medical and criminal justice being touted as the next big thing in jobs, many will graduate, few will find employment.

[MamaBird62]

10:12 PM on 04/13/2010

What we need more of in the US is medical doctors, particularly general practitioners.
That is one well-paying, highly respected, satisfying job that can never be outsourced!
Yes, most students lack the ambition and smarts to do it, but for those who do, we need you!

I know a lot of unemployed engineers, especially in the over age 50 category. Can't say the same for MD's.

[hypnotoad72]

06:54 PM on 04/14/2010

Just as long as the numbers aren't artificially kept short.

Oh, and as long as those in college for the medical field don't get caught whining, "I pay a lot to be here so I deserve more than a 'C' grade!". Pity I'm not making that up; going into class early one day, one med student was saying precisely that to her friend.

[veritas88]

12:57 AM on 04/16/2010

MDs, not MD's.

[FatherWolf]

08:49 PM on 04/13/2010

Hey,

if you REALLY want to make tons of money, skip college entirely and become an entertainer or entrepreneur.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/11/most-successful-people-wh_n_533355.html

/snark

[ThinkLiberal]

09:23 PM on 04/13/2010

Having been self-employed for over 25 years, I am the biggest proponent of entrepreneurship. But I feel that a strong educational foundation can work wonders to minimize the odds of failing in business. True, you don't necessarily need a lot of education to be an entertainer these days, but it will help your bottom line a lot if you can understand basic accounting principles and fundamental business practices. Otherwise your financial future is at the mercy of those who know a little bit more than you do. Now that's scary.

[DavidWyld]

06:08 PM on 04/13/2010

Stay in school kid - and take every math class that you can - there's the message! Geeks win in the end!

David http://wyld-about-money.blogspot.com/

[deridaa]

06:04 PM on 04/13/2010

Cal Tech and MIT = hard work and real smarts = a job.

Liberal Arts + PC courses about nothing = unemployment

Profit is only a factor because the students are stuck with expensive loans to pay off roughly 60K per year!! That is why its DUMB to go to Med School 12 years of school at 60K per year so that you graduate with loans you cannot pay off at the fee structure of a manicurist ( exception is orthopedics, dermatology, back surgeons, eye surgeons, plastic surgeons) everyone else starves! Add in malpractice insurance housing and a car and gas forget marriage and all graduates should file bankruptcy. No wonder everyone goes into law. The industry created never to fail financially.

[confuseddemocrat]

06:19 AM on 04/16/2010

there are a lot of starving gen practitioners driving around in Mercedes................