These college majors have the highest starting salaries

By Chris MorrisFormer Contributing Writer
Chris MorrisFormer Contributing Writer

    Chris Morris is a former contributing writer at Fortune, covering everything from general business news to the video game and theme park industries.

    Looking to boost your bank account right out of the gate when you graduate college? Consider blending the worlds of oil and technology.

    A recent study from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) looks at the top-earning majors for the class of 2020—and, as you might expect, the technology-centered ones top the list, with petroleum engineering leading the group. Graduates who earned a degree in the field had an average starting salary of $87,989 last year.

    On the whole, 2020’s graduates were off to a better start than those who graduated in the two years before. The survey found the 2020 average salary of $55,260 was 2.5% above the class of 2019’s average starting salary of $53,889 and 8.5% higher than the Class of 2018’s average starting salary of $50,944.

    “In some cases, salary increases most likely reflect these unique times,” says Shawn VanDerziel, NACE executive director in a statement. “For example, the increased demand for nurses as frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic may have fueled the 2.1% increase in the average starting salary for registered nursing majors, from $57,416 for these graduates from the Class of 2019 to $58,626 for Class of 2020 registered nursing graduates.”

    Here’s a look at the majors that had the biggest starting salaries last year:

    Petroleum engineering – $87,989

    Computer programming – $86,098

    Computer engineering – $85,996

    Computer science – $85,766

    Electrical, electronics, and communications engineering – $80,819

    Operations research – $80,166

    Computer and information science – $78,603

    Statistics – $75,916

    Applied mathematics – $73,558

    Chemical engineering – $72,713

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