But it's still nice to know which degrees pay off the fastest. And we can't blame you for being drawn to those.
PayScale, creator of the world's largest compensation database, recently looked at the starting pay for millions of professionals and sorted the results by college major.
Here are the 25 majors with the highest starting salaries:
25. Management Information Systems (MIS)
Median starting pay: $56,300
Median mid-career pay: $95,500
% change from starting to mid-career: +52%
24. Mechanical Engineering Technology (MET)
Median starting pay: $56,600
Median mid-career pay: $85,400
% change from starting to mid-career: +41%
23. Nursing
Median starting pay: $56,900
Median mid-career pay: $73,600
% change from starting to mid-career: +26%
22. Business and Information Technology
Median starting pay: $56,900
Median mid-career pay: $99,100
% change from starting to mid-career: +74%
21. Architectural Engineering
Median starting pay: $57,000
Median mid-career pay: $90,400
% change from starting to mid-career: +59%
20. Physics
Median starting pay: $57,200
Median mid-career pay: $105,100
% change from starting to mid-career: +85%
19. Electrical Engineering Technology
Median starting pay: $58,900
Median mid-career pay: $88,200
% change from starting to mid-career: +50%
18. Biomedical Engineering
Median starting pay: $59,600
Median mid-career pay: $92,200
% change from starting to mid-career: +55%
17. Business Information Systems
Median starting pay: $59,800
Median mid-career pay: $85,100
% change from starting to mid-career: +42%
16. Actuarial Mathematics
Median starting pay: $60,800
Median mid-career pay: $119,600
% change from starting to mid-career: +97%
15. Computer Science
Median starting pay: $61,600
Median mid-career pay: $103,600
% change from starting to mid-career: +68%
14. Software Engineering
Median starting pay: $61,700
Median mid-career pay: $99,800
% change from starting to mid-career: +62%
13. Industrial Engineering
Median starting pay: $61,900
Median mid-career pay: $97,200
% change from starting to mid-career: +57%
12. Mechanical Engineering
Median starting pay: $62,100
Median mid-career pay: $101,600
% change from starting to mid-career: +64%
11. Computer Science and Mathematics
Median starting pay: $63,200
Median mid-career pay: $101,400
% change from starting to mid-career: 60%
10. Materials Science and Engineering
Median starting pay: $64,000
Median mid-career pay: $105,100
% change from starting to mid-career: +64%
9. Electronics and Communications Engineering
Median starting pay: $64,100
Median mid-career pay: $113,200
% change from starting to mid-career: +77%
8. Aerospace Engineering
Median starting pay: $64,700
Median mid-career pay: $107,900
% change from starting to mid-career: +67%
7. Electrical Engineering
Median starting pay: $65,900
Median mid-career pay: $107,900
% change from starting to mid-career: +64%
6. Electrical and Computer Engineering
Median starting pay: $66,500
Median mid-career pay: $113,000
% change from starting to mid-career: +70%
5. Computer Science and Engineering
Median starting pay: $66,700
Median mid-career pay: $112,600
% change from starting to mid-career: +69%
4. Nuclear Engineering
Median starting pay: $67,000
Median mid-career pay: $118,800
% change from starting to mid-career: +77%
3. Computer Engineering
Median starting pay: $67,300
Median mid-career pay: $108,600
% change from starting to mid-career: +61%
2. Chemical Engineering
Median starting pay: $69,600
Median mid-career pay: $116,700
% change from starting to mid-career: +68%
1. Petroleum Engineering
Median starting pay: $102,300
Median mid-career pay: $176,300
% change from starting to mid-career: +72%
Find out how your salary stacks up on PayScale.
