We have long known that a person’s educational level correlates with lifetime income, but what we haven’t realized until now is that our college majors are also significant to the bottom line. The U.S. Census Bureau recently published data acquired from its 2009 American Community Survey that shows wide disparities between differing majors and their median incomes: from a low of $29,000 for counseling-psychology majors to a high of $120,000 for petroleum engineering majors. Only full-time workers between the ages of 25 and 64 were surveyed, to help eliminate temporary or first jobs from the figures. The figures support surveys illustrating that educational level is the most important factor in determining future income: counseling-psychology was the only major that had a lower median income than the average for those with only a high school diploma ($33,000). The overall median income for those with college degrees is $55,000.

Not surprisingly, engineering is the most lucrative major, with incomes ranging from $55,000 to $120,000, computers and mathematics majors earn in the range of $50,000 to $98,000, and health is surprisingly rewarding with incomes from $40,000 to $105,000. On the lower end are arts and humanities majors — with median incomes of $45,000.