These Colleges and Majors Lead to the Highest Salaries

Harvey Mudd College is no longer the best school from which to earn a bachelor’s degree that yields the highest salary.

The private school in Claremont, California — which had held the top position for two years — has been unseated by State University of New York Maritime College (SUNY Maritime College) on Payscale’s list of undergraduate schools with the highest-paid alumni.

Maritime College’s alumni earn an average midcareer salary of $134,000, according to Payscale’s 2015-2016 College Salary Report.

Alumni of Harvey Mudd College, which came in at No. 2 this year among four-year schools, are not far behind with an average midcareer salary of $133,000.

Maritime College’s degree programs include engineering, naval architecture and marine studies. Harvey Mudd College is a liberal arts school focused on engineering, science and math.

Are you sensing a theme?

Payscale’s vice president of data analytics, Katie Bardaro, explains in a news release:

“As with many of the schools that end up at the top of our list in terms of earning potential, SUNY Maritime offers a strong engineering program. College graduates who major in STEM fields — science, technology, engineering and math — are in demand in today’s labor market, and this increased demand drives up wages.”

Four out of the five highest-paying majors are engineering programs this year, according to Payscale’s analysis:

• Petroleum engineering
• Nuclear engineering
• Actuarial mathematics
• Chemical engineering
• Electronics and communications engineering

The schools with the highest-paid alumni are:

Two-year

• CUNY (City University of New York) New York City College of Technology
• Fashion Institute of Technology, New York
• De Anza College, Cupertino, California
• Bakersfield College, Bakersfield, California
• Alvin Community College, Alvin, Texas

Undergraduate

• SUNY Maritime College
• Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, California
• Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
• United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland
• California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California

Graduate

• Emory University School of Law, Atlanta
• UCLA School of Law, Los Angeles
• Harvard Business School, Cambridge, Massachusetts
• Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, D.C.
• Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts

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