Data story · October 21, 2026 · All data stories
When people compare majors they usually compare medians. The medians are real, but they hide something larger: how widely graduates of the same major differ.
The picture
The chart shows, for six common bachelor’s fields, the median earnings four years after graduation (the dark tick) and the range that holds the middle half of graduates (the shaded bar, from the 25th to the 75th percentile). The shaded bars are long, and several of them overlap.
Source: U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard, field-of-study earnings, four years after graduation, for graduates who received federal aid and were working and not enrolled. National values as shown on the MajorPays major pages.
What stands out
- The middle half spans a wide range. In computer science it runs from $74,830 to $152,038, a spread of $77,208. In English it runs from $33,654 to $63,810. Across the 132 bachelor’s fields with at least 30 reporting programs, the typical spread is about $36,476, while the typical field’s median is $58,911.
- Medians that differ can still overlap. Biology ($57,214) and psychology ($50,706) are about $6,508 apart at the median, but their middle halves cover most of the same ground, so a graduate of either could well out-earn the typical graduate of the other.
- Some gaps are real. The top of the English range ($63,810) sits below the bottom of the computer science range ($74,830). Differences like this do exist, mostly between fields at opposite ends of the pay range.
- Fields differ less than graduates within them. The middle half of field medians spans about $24,375 (from $51,655 to $76,030), while the middle half of graduates inside the typical single field spans $36,476. The middle 80% of fields have medians between about $48,262 and $91,266.
What this means for reading the numbers
A median tells you where the middle of a group is, not where you or anyone else will land. Look at how wide the range is, ask what drives it (school, location, the job a graduate takes, years of experience), and treat a difference between two medians as meaningful only when the ranges do not mostly overlap. MajorPays shows the middle half on every major page for this reason.
How we computed this
Medians and percentiles are the national values reported for each field by the College Scorecard. “Typical” means the median across fields with at least 30 reporting schools or school groups. These are group figures, not predictions, and they do not measure what any degree adds to a graduate’s earnings.
MajorPays shares information, not advice. Figures are group statistics from U.S. government sources, not predictions for any person, and MajorPays does not rank schools or places. See our methodology.