Engineering and computing lead

The highest-earning bachelor's field in this dataset is Computer Science, whose graduates earn a median of $114,206 against median debt of $20,702 - a debt-to-earnings ratio of just 18%. The top of the table is dominated by engineering and computing fields, which combine strong starting salaries with relatively contained debt because much of the coursework leads directly into high-wage technical occupations. A low debt-to-earnings ratio is the signal to watch: it means a graduate's annual earnings comfortably exceed what they borrowed, so the loan is repaid as a small fraction of income rather than a long-term drag.

The debt-to-earnings lens

Ranking by salary alone is misleading, which is why the debt column matters. A field in the middle of this list, such as Applied Mathematics, earns $99,882 on median debt of $18,201. Across the whole top ten, debt levels are fairly similar while earnings vary, so the ratio compresses toward the top: nearly every field here repays its debt within a comfortable multiple of a single year's earnings. The fields to be cautious about are not on this list - they are the ones where debt rivals or exceeds first-decade earnings, which is where a degree can become a financial burden rather than an investment.

Why these fields pay

The fields at the top of this list share a common thread: they map directly onto occupations with persistent labor shortages and measurable, in-demand technical skills. Engineering and computing graduates enter roles where employers compete for a limited supply of qualified candidates, which bids up starting salaries and keeps them climbing through the first decade. Health-adjacent and quantitative fields show the same pattern for the same reason. Crucially, these fields tend to pair high pay with moderate debt because the credential leads quickly into well-paid work, so borrowers repay from a strong income base rather than stretching loans across years of lower earnings. That combination - scarce skills, strong demand, and a fast path to repayment - is what separates a genuinely high-return major from one that merely sounds prestigious.

How to use this

A high-earning field is not automatically the right field - interest, aptitude, and completion odds matter enormously, and a student who switches out of a demanding major captures none of its earnings premium. Treat this ranking as evidence that field of study is one of the largest controllable levers on the financial return of a degree, often larger than the choice of institution. The per-program profiles linked in the table show how earnings for each field vary across schools, so a student can see whether a particular college over- or under-delivers within their intended major, and whether the debt typical of that field at that school stays within a comfortable multiple of expected earnings.