These Are the Highest-Paying College Majors of 2017

If someone asks you why you're going to college and you say "to learn," I'm calling you out right now. In this day and age of readily available, free information at the press of a button, you don't need to pay someone thousands of dollars every few months just to learn about something. You don't have to pay anyone anything to do that. No, the truth of the matter is that no matter how much you want to learn about something, that's not really why you're in college. Yes, it might be part of it, but the fact remains that we're all in college for one reason. To make more money doing that thing. And depending on what your major is, you might end up making a lot more than some (if not most) of your peers. So, without further ado, here is a list of the top 15 highest-paying majors* in 2017, listed by the highest early to mid-career pay with a Bachelor’s degree.

Before you take a look, I'd like to mention that if you're hoping for some variety here, you're going to be sorely disappointed. There are several high-paying markets out there and they're all pretty much from one family. If you’re looking for a decent salary near the beginning of your career, take a look below:

1. Petroleum Engineering............................................................... $96,700 - $172,000
2. Systems Engineering....................................................................$66,400 - $121,000
3. Actuarial Science...........................................................................$60,800 - $119,000
4. Chemical Engineering..................................................................$69,800 - $119,000
5. Computer Science and Engineering.............................................$71,200 - $116,000
6. Nuclear Engineering......................................................................$68,500 - $116,000
7. Electronics & Communications Engineering.................................$68,000 - $115,000
8. Electrical & Computer Engineering...............................................$68,100 - $114,000
9. Aeronautical Engineering...........................................$63,000 - $113,000
10. Computer Engineering..................................................................$69,600 - $113,000
11. Computer Science & Mathematics................................................$63,500 - $111,000
12. Physics & Mathematics..................................................................$56,200 - $111,000
13. Applied Mathematics.....................................................................$56,100 - $110,000
14. Electrical Engineering.....................................................................$67,000 - $110,000
15. Electrical & Electronics Engineering...............................................$64,000 - $108,000

*Statistics provided by payscale.com.