Majors that pay off their debt fastest

How long the earnings premium over a typical high-school graduate takes to recoup what graduates typically borrowed, lowest first.

#	Major	Years to pay back	Programs
1	Systems Engineering	0.3 yrs	11
2	Computer Engineering	0.3 yrs	165
3	Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Administration	0.3 yrs	26
4	Engineering, Other	0.4 yrs	17
5	Industrial Engineering	0.4 yrs	89
6	Construction Management	0.4 yrs	50
7	Engineering-Related Fields	0.4 yrs	27
8	Real Estate	0.4 yrs	23
9	Manufacturing Engineering	0.4 yrs	12
10	Biomedical/Medical Engineering	0.4 yrs	120
11	Construction Engineering Technology/Technician	0.4 yrs	37
12	Aerospace, Aeronautical, and Astronautical/Space Engineering	0.4 yrs	60
13	Computer Science	0.4 yrs	313
14	Statistics	0.4 yrs	44
15	Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering	0.4 yrs	243
16	Insurance	0.4 yrs	16
17	Chemical Engineering	0.4 yrs	152
18	Nuclear Engineering	0.4 yrs	12
19	Mechanical Engineering	0.4 yrs	317
20	Applied Mathematics	0.4 yrs	37
21	Petroleum Engineering	0.4 yrs	17
22	Engineering/Engineering-Related Technologies/Technicians, Other	0.4 yrs	14
23	Cognitive Science	0.4 yrs	17
24	Construction Engineering	0.4 yrs	10
25	Industrial Production Technologies/Technicians	0.5 yrs	44

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Payback is median federal debt divided by the yearly earnings premium over a typical high-school graduate. It is a plain ratio, not the amortized federal debt-to-earnings rate, and it ignores interest and time to degree.

Source: U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard (release 2026-06-10). Earnings are median earnings of graduates measured up to four years after completing, and describe past graduates rather than a promise. Method: methodology. Report an error.