The 15 college majors with the highest starting salaries

Source@ Business Insider
CAREERS

JACQUELYN SMITH JAN. 9, 2015, 2:10 PM 818,266 14

Salary potential shouldn't be the sole thing that attracts you to a major in college; things like passion, interest, and aptitude should also be considered. But it's still nice to know which degrees pay off the fastest. 

Payscale, the creator of the world's largest compensation database, recently looked at the starting pay for millions of professionals and sorted the results by college major.

1. Petroleum Engineering
1. Petroleum Engineering Nick L via flickr
Median starting pay: $102,300

Median mid-career pay: $176,300

% change from starting to mid-career: +72%

2. Chemical Engineering
2. Chemical Engineering Flickr/UC Davis College of Engineering
Median starting pay: $69,600

Median mid-career pay: $116,700

% change from starting to mid-career: +68%

3. Computer Engineering
3. Computer Engineering BYU-Idaho Admissions/Flickr
Median starting pay: $67,300

Median mid-career pay: $108,600

% change from starting to mid-career: +61%

4. Nuclear Engineering
4. Nuclear Engineering U.S. Army Europe Images/flickr
Median starting pay: $67,000

Median mid-career pay: $118,800

% change from starting to mid-career: +77%

5. Computer Science & Engineering
5. Computer Science & Engineering Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images
Median starting pay: $66,700

Median mid-career pay: $112,600

% change from starting to mid-career: +69%

6. Electrical & Computer Engineering
6. Electrical & Computer Engineering UC Davis College of Engineering/Watson Lu/flickr
Median starting pay: $66,500

Median mid-career pay: $113,000

% change from starting to mid-career: +70%

7. Electrical Engineering
7. Electrical Engineering NASA/Goddard via flickr
Median starting pay: $65,900

Median mid-career pay: $107,900

% change from starting to mid-career: +64%

8. Aerospace Engineering
8. Aerospace Engineering NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory/flickr
Median starting pay: $64,700

Median mid-career pay: $107,900

% change from starting to mid-career: +67%

9. Electronics & Communications Engineering
9. Electronics & Communications Engineering UC Davis College of Engineering/flickr
Median starting pay: $64,100

Median mid-career pay: $113,200

% change from starting to mid-career: +77%

10. Materials Science & Engineering
10. Materials Science & Engineering UC Davis College of Engineering
Median starting pay: $64,000

Median mid-career pay: $105,100

% change from starting to mid-career: +64%

11. Computer Science (CS) & Mathematics
11. Computer Science (CS) & Mathematics University of the Fraser Valley/flickr
Median starting pay: $63,200

Median mid-career pay: $101,400

% change from starting to mid-career: 60%

12. Mechanical Engineering
12. Mechanical Engineering Flickr/UC Davis College of Engineering
Median starting pay: $62,100

Median mid-career pay: $101,600

% change from starting to mid-career: +64%

13. Industrial Engineering
13. Industrial Engineering U.S. Army Corps of Engineers photo by Michael J. Nevins/flickr
Median starting pay: $61,900

Median mid-career pay: $97,200

% change from starting to mid-career: +57%

14. Software Engineering
14. Software Engineering Stephen Brashear/Getty Images
Median starting pay: $61,700

Median mid-career pay: $99,800

% change from starting to mid-career: +62%

15. Computer Science
15. Computer Science UC Davis College of Engineering/flickr
Median starting pay: $61,600

Median mid-career pay: $103,600

% change from starting to mid-career: +68%