Aerospace engineers chose the most-profitable college degree with a starting median salary of $59,600 and a mid-career median salary of $109,000.
Aerospace engineers design, test and supervise the manufacturing of aircraft. Many of them specialize in products such as military jets, helicopters or commercial aircraft. The Bureau of Labor Statistics references an expected employment growth of 10 percent.
Schools offering bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering include Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Ariz. and Daytona Beach, Fla.; University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MIch.; University of Texas at Austin in Texas; and Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Ga., among other universities.
The average chemical engineer earns more than an aerospace engineer initially with a median starting salary of $65,700, but lags in the median mid-career salary of 107,000.
Chemical engineers apply principles of multiple science fields, including chemistry, to design equipment to work with chemical manufacturers or solve problems in the production or use of chemical products. Chemical engineers often specialize in specific processes or fields, such as oxidation or nanomaterials.
U.S. News & World Report in 2010 ranked the top three chemical engineering schools as The Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts; The University of California-Berkeley; and the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Following the trend of top-earning engineers, computer engineering has a starting median salary of $61,700 and a mid-career median of $105,000.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts computer engineering to be one of the fastest-growing occupations during the next decade. These types of engineers design and develop computer software. There are also computer hardware engineers, who develop the hardware components in a computer.
For a computer engineering major, consider the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California-Berkeley or the University of Illinois--Urbana-Champaign in Champaign, Ill.
Electrical engineering comes in as the final engineering degree in the Top Five, though mechanical, industrial and environmental engineering all appear in the Top 10. The median starting salary for electrical engineers is $60,200 with a mid-career median salary of $102,000.
Employees in this field develop electrical equipment such as machinery controls, electric motors and lighting and wiring in buildings. There is only an expected 2 percent in growth in the industry over the next decade due to competition for employment from overseas, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Top schools for this industry include MIT, Stanford University in Stanford, Calif. and University of Illinois--Urbana-Champaign.
The only non-engineering major in the Top Five highest-paying bachelor's degrees, economics majors can expect a median starting salary of $50,200 with a mid-career average of $101,000.
Economists conduct research and analyze data to study how society distributes resources to produce goods and services, according to the BLS. With this research, they forecast the status of a variety of fields, such as energy costs, inflation, employment and taxes.
In March 2010, Business Week ranked Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana, University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia, and MIT as the Top 3 business schools in the country.