It is understandable that many college-bound students might choose their major based on their interests, but others perform a lot of research prior to selecting their course of study. If you take the time to research various majors, you will be able to find out which majors offer the highest-paying jobs in the country. For some, even if they have a tiny bit of interest in a field of study, the reward from the paycheck might be enough to change their minds.


The data used in this article was provided by Payscale.com, which analyzed numbers from the United States Department of Education. They broke the data down into the 20 most common majors in the country and then found the highest-paying jobs within each major. The catch here is that the salary numbers are for employees who have been working at the job for a range of five to eight years.


Katie Bardaro is the lead analyst at Payscale.com. She said, “You can’t go into these [less-lucrative] majors, pay a lot for your education and then expect to make a lot of money. Remember that just because you go to college, you don’t [necessarily] get a high-paying job.”


We are taking a look at five of the 20 majors analyzed by Payscale.com for this post.


A major in accounting can secure you the job of internal auditing manager at $85,900; the job of financial controller at $77,700; or the job of certified public accountant at $59,900.


A degree in the field of communications can land you the job of senior account executive at $57,000; the job of public relations specialist at $43,600; or the job of event coordinator at $41,000.


In the economics industry, working as a portfolio manager can net you a paycheck of $88,300; working as a management consultant can provide an income of $79,100; and the job of data analyst can help you earn $49,600 per year.


If you have a degree in physics, you can work as a physicist for $69,200 per year; as a research scientist for $68,000 annually, or as a secondary school teacher for $42,400 per year. You can see the drastic drop in income within this category.


With a degree in sociology, people who work as an executive assistant can earn $43,700 per year; those who work as a nonprofit program coordinator can earn $36,700 per year; and those who work as a retail store assistant manager can earn $35,400 per year.


Some of the other majors analyzed include criminal justice, social work, history, geology, mathematics and construction management.