The Highest ROI College Majors in 2026 (According to Federal Earnings Data)

Which college degrees actually pay back their tuition costs? It's the question behind every college decision, but most "best majors" lists rely on survey data or self-reported salaries. We took a different approach.

DegreeWorth analyzed 24,479 bachelor's degree programs across 1,879 schools using earnings data from the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard. This is actual reported graduate income, not estimates. We then calculated a simple ROI metric: total 10-year projected earnings divided by 4-year tuition costs.

The results confirm some expectations and challenge others. Engineering and computer science dominate the top, but nursing programs at community college bachelor's programs deliver some of the best returns in the entire dataset. And several fields that parents push their kids toward don't crack the top half.

The Top 10 Highest-Earning Majors (Average Across All Schools)

First, let's look at which fields of study produce the highest-earning graduates on average, regardless of which school they attended.

A few things stand out. Marine Transportation has an absurdly high ROI (65x) because merchant marine academies like Kings Point charge almost nothing in tuition while graduates earn strong salaries immediately. It's a niche path, but the numbers don't lie.

Nursing is the sleeper on this list. It ranks 10th by average earnings, but it has 941 schools offering the program compared to 5-9 for most of the top entries. That accessibility matters. You don't need to get into a top-5 engineering school to earn $75K a year as a nurse.

Computer Engineering and Electrical Engineering both appear with 170+ schools each, making them the most accessible high-earning paths on the list.

Why ROI Matters More Than Raw Salary

A major that pays $80,000 a year sounds great until you realize you spent $280,000 on tuition to get there. That's why we focus on ROI (return on investment) rather than just earnings.

The ROI metric we use is straightforward: projected 10-year earnings divided by total tuition cost. An ROI of 10x means you'll earn ten times what you paid for your degree over a decade. Anything above 5x is solid. Below 2x starts to look questionable.

This is where school choice becomes critical. The same Computer Science degree can have a 25x ROI at a public state school or a 6x ROI at an expensive private university. The major is only half the equation.

The Surprising ROI Winners

When you sort by ROI instead of raw salary, the list reshuffles considerably. Community colleges and public universities that offer bachelor's degrees in nursing and technical fields dominate.

Nursing programs at Florida community colleges (Valencia, Broward, College of Central Florida) consistently deliver 80-100x ROI because tuition is extremely low and nursing salaries in Florida are strong. A graduate earning $80K-$93K a year who paid under $4,000 in total tuition is getting a return that no Ivy League program can match.

This pattern repeats across states. The best ROI in the dataset isn't at MIT or Stanford. It's at the United States Merchant Marine Academy, where Marine Transportation graduates earn $70K a year after paying essentially nothing in tuition (266x ROI).

The Lowest ROI Majors

On the other end of the spectrum, several popular majors struggle to justify their tuition costs on pure financial terms.

These aren't bad careers, and earnings data from the first year after graduation doesn't capture the full picture. A theatre major who becomes a successful director will outperform these averages significantly. But the median outcome tells a clear story: the typical graduate in these fields earns about half what the typical engineering or nursing graduate earns, while often paying similar tuition.

The one that might raise eyebrows: Drama and Theatre Arts has 270 schools offering the program. That's a lot of graduates competing for a relatively small job market, which helps explain the lower earnings.

The AI Factor No One Is Talking About

ROI based on current earnings tells you about the past. But what about the future?

DegreeWorth incorporates AI automation risk into every analysis using research from OpenAI and academic institutions. We model three scenarios for each program: optimistic (no AI disruption), base case (gradual adoption), and pessimistic (aggressive displacement).

Some high-earning fields face significant AI risk. A large portion of the tasks performed by financial analysts, accountants, and certain engineering roles overlap with what large language models and AI tools can already do. That doesn't mean those jobs disappear, but it means the earnings trajectory could flatten or decline.

Meanwhile, fields that require physical presence and human judgment tend to be more resilient. Nursing scores as "Low" AI risk despite being one of the highest-earning majors. Marine Transportation, Construction Engineering, and Mining Engineering are similarly insulated from automation.

The programs that combine high earnings, strong ROI, and low AI risk represent the most durable bets in the current landscape.

What This Data Can't Tell You

Before you reorganize your life around these numbers, some honest caveats.

First-year earnings aren't destiny. The College Scorecard reports earnings one year after graduation. Some fields (law, medicine, academia) have long ramp-up periods where early earnings badly understate career potential. A philosophy major who goes to law school will eventually out-earn most engineers, but that doesn't show up in this data.

Averages hide huge variance. Computer Science has a mean of $78K, but the range spans from $35K at some schools to $173K at others. Where you go matters as much as what you study.

Money isn't everything. A theatre major earning $21K who loves their work might be making a perfectly rational choice. These numbers measure financial return, not life satisfaction or social contribution. Use them as one input, not the only one.

The job market shifts. Petroleum engineering was the top-paying major for years, then oil prices cratered and hiring froze. Today's highest-earning fields won't necessarily stay on top. Our AI scenario modeling attempts to account for this, but no one can predict the future with certainty.

The Bottom Line

If you're optimizing purely for financial return, the data points clearly toward engineering, computer science, and nursing. These fields combine strong earnings, broad availability across many schools, reasonable tuition at public universities, and relatively low AI disruption risk.

But the single biggest lever isn't your major. It's your school choice within that major. The same degree can deliver a 25x return at one school and a 3x return at another. That's why we built DegreeWorth to analyze every school-major combination individually rather than just ranking majors in the abstract.

The data is free, the methodology is transparent, and every number comes from federal sources. Use it.