Which College Degrees Have The Best Return On Investment?

Career prospects, and especially expected lifetime salaries, can be a strong motivator or deterrent in pursuing certain college degrees.

Not all degrees guarantee higher lifetime earnings compared to entering the workforce after high school without a degree – as some degrees may end up costing more than their financial benefits.

This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Kayla Zhu, shows the average return on investment of a degree in the U.S., based on analysis from CollegeNPV of data from the U.S. Department of Education and Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The return on investment of a degree is the expected lifetime value of the degree (net of debt) compared to entering the workforce after high school.

STEM Degrees Have The Best Bang For Their Buck

Below, we show the average return on investment of various degrees in the U.S.

Field of StudyAverage return on investment
Engineering$570,616
Computer and Information Sciences$477,229
Mathematics$340,875
Engineering Technicians$311,141
Business$205,191
Architecture$196,711
Nursing and Health Professions$194,756
Physics, Chemistry and Geology$168,822
Social Sciences$118,454
Interdisciplinary Studies$69,656
Biology$63,913
Agriculture$59,556
Area, Ethnic, Cultural, Gender and Group Studies$42,959
Legal Studies$38,999
Natural Resources and Conservation$28,985
Communication and Journalism$28,654
Homeland Security, Law Enforcement and Firefighting$27,284
Foreign Languages$25,750
Public Administration and Social Services$7,787
Philosophy and Religious Studies$6,011
History$4,938
Fitness, Parks and Recreation-$1,078
Liberal Arts and General Studies-$13,337
Psychology-$15,644
Education-$20,075
Family and Human Sciences-$24,540
Communications Technologies-$28,911
English Language-$39,057
Theology-$91,749
Visual and Performing Arts-$104,015

Engineering, computer and information sciences, mathematics, and engineering technician degrees are the most valuable degrees in the U.S. when looking at expected lifetime income minus debt compared to working right after high school without a degree.

As for specific programs, Harvard University’s computer science degree ranks first for ROI, according to CollegeNPV.

Graduates of this program can expect an ROI of over $4 million in their lifetime, with $256,539 in median income and $14,000 in median debt.

On the other end, humanities degrees like visual and performing arts, theology, and English are among the least valuable degrees when looking at lifetime earnings.

With a negative ROI of about $39,000, English language programs have also experienced the greatest decrease in graduates, with 32% fewer students completing these programs compared to 10 years prior.

To learn more about some of the top universities in the U.S., check out this graphic that shows which universities produce the most startup founders.