Inside the college majors at elite universities where graduates earn more than $250,000—over 4 times their peers

Young man sitting on a private jet, wearing a flannel while working on a laptop and holding a glass of champagne (Credit: Drazen/Getty Images)

With a challenging job market, mounting student loan debt, and warnings of further disruption from AI, more Gen Z college graduates are questioning whether the time and money spent earning a degree will pay off. But new data points to some major exceptions, where graduates of certain degrees are earning median incomes well above $200,000.

Mathematics graduates from Duke University are bringing home median annual earnings of $297,029 four years postgrad, according to data analyzed by higher education research firm HEA Group, cited by the New York Times.