Most Meaningful College Majors
Money isn’t everything. Some majors lead to more meaningful jobs than others. If you want to change the world with your education, check out the most meaningful college majors (and we’ll tell you the earning potential as well).
| Major | % High Meaning | Early Career Pay | Mid-Career Pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| Major:Music Therapy | % High Meaning:95% | Early Career Pay:$48,500 | Mid-Career Pay:$63,500 |
| Major:Medicine | % High Meaning:94% | Early Career Pay:$88,700 | Mid-Career Pay:$124,700 |
| Major:Cardiopulmonary Science | % High Meaning:92% | Early Career Pay:$56,500 | Mid-Career Pay:$83,200 |
| Major:Radiation Therapy | % High Meaning:91% | Early Career Pay:$73,000 | Mid-Career Pay:$107,400 |
| Major:Radiation Therapy | % High Meaning:91% | Early Career Pay:$76,100 | Mid-Career Pay:$102,600 |
| Major:Alcohol & Drug Studies | % High Meaning:90% | Early Career Pay:$42,300 | Mid-Career Pay:$57,500 |
| Major:Cardiovascular Technology | % High Meaning:89% | Early Career Pay:$65,900 | Mid-Career Pay:$78,500 |
| Major:Physical Therapy | % High Meaning:88% | Early Career Pay:$54,900 | Mid-Career Pay:$109,300 |
| Major:Applied Behavior Analysis | % High Meaning:88% | Early Career Pay:$43,400 | Mid-Career Pay:$80,000 |
| Major:Occupational Therapy (OT) | % High Meaning:87% | Early Career Pay:$60,700 | Mid-Career Pay:$103,200 |
| Major:American Sign Language Interpreting | % High Meaning:87% | Early Career Pay:$49,400 | Mid-Career Pay:$89,900 |
| Major:Health Services Management | % High Meaning:87% | Early Career Pay:$47,400 | Mid-Career Pay:$71,000 |
| Major:Diagnostic Medical Sonography | % High Meaning:86% | Early Career Pay:$71,700 | Mid-Career Pay:$91,800 |
| Major:Physical Therapist Assistant Studies | % High Meaning:86% | Early Career Pay:$58,300 | Mid-Career Pay:$71,900 |
| Major:Cytotechnology | % High Meaning:86% | Early Career Pay:$66,800 | Mid-Career Pay:$85,600 |
| Major:Surgical Technology | % High Meaning:86% | Early Career Pay:$47,300 | Mid-Career Pay:$63,000 |
| Major:Medical Laboratory Science | % High Meaning:86% | Early Career Pay:$62,700 | Mid-Career Pay:$81,000 |
| Major:Occupational Therapy Assistant (OTA) Studies | % High Meaning:85% | Early Career Pay:$61,400 | Mid-Career Pay:$71,800 |
| Major:Respiratory Care | % High Meaning:85% | Early Career Pay:$61,800 | Mid-Career Pay:$81,500 |
| Major:Bachelor of Science in Nursing | % High Meaning:85% | Early Career Pay:$72,000 | Mid-Career Pay:$90,700 |
| Major:Funeral Service Education | % High Meaning:84% | Early Career Pay:$39,400 | Mid-Career Pay:$60,100 |
| Major:Addictions Counseling | % High Meaning:84% | Early Career Pay:$42,900 | Mid-Career Pay:$50,300 |
| Major:Echocardiography | % High Meaning:84% | Early Career Pay:$68,100 | Mid-Career Pay:$85,400 |
| Major:Diagnostic Medical Sonography | % High Meaning:84% | Early Career Pay:$67,900 | Mid-Career Pay:$82,000 |
| Major:Art Therapy | % High Meaning:84% | Early Career Pay:$46,100 | Mid-Career Pay:$79,000 |
When it comes to choosing a career and picking a college major that will help you achieve your goals, money isn’t everything. Job meaning counts for a lot too. That’s why Payscale asks everybody who takes our survey if they feel like their job makes the world a better place. This list ranks college majors by the percentage of graduates in each major who answer that question with a resounding “yes.”
Careers that involve directly helping people are generally perceived as the most meaningful, so majors that prepare students for a career working with people to improve lives rank highest on this list. If you look at our study of the Most and Least Meaningful Jobs, you also see that jobs in the health sector generally feel that their jobs are very meaningful.
Another job type that leads to a high sense of job meaning is Community and Social Service. So it makes sense that a high percentage of workers with a bachelor’s degree in pastoral ministry say that their work definitely makes the world a better place. Graduates who chose this path definitely sacrifice income potential for good karma, since the median mid-career salary for pastoral ministry majors is quite low.
That doesn’t mean that all meaningful majors lead to low salaries. Many of the health-related majors on the top of this list have high earning potential as well as job meaning. Workers who majored in subjects like Medical Laboratory Science, Respiratory Care, Clinical Laboratory Science, Nursing, Dental Hygiene and Diagnostic Medical Sonography have salaries above $60,000. And people with one of the highest-paying majors on our list, petroleum engineering, don’t seem to feel like they’ve sold their souls for a high income; the majority of them report high job meaning.