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The debate over whether a four-year college degree is the best way to success is complicated, but one theme is increasingly emerging: It depends on what you study.

You can make a lot if your bachelor’s degree is in petroleum engineering ($146,000) or pharmaceutical sciences or administration ($145,000) but a lot less if you earn a B.A. in counseling ($55,000) or early childhood education ($51,000), according to the the latest report by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.

On the whole, having a bachelor鈥檚 degree leads on average, to earning 70% more than just having a high school diploma, reports the center, which has been a leader the last several years in researching which credentials employers are seeking and the return for students who earn them.

People with graduate degrees earn 29% more than those with just a bachelor鈥檚 degree.

But there are big differences between fields and degrees at each level.

鈥淐hoosing a major has long been one of the most consequential decisions that college students make 鈥� and this is particularly true now, when recent college graduates are facing an unusually rocky labor market. Students need to weigh their options carefully,鈥� wrote lead author Catherine Morris.

Speaking broadly, the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM), business and communications, and healthcare degrees lead to the highest median earnings at their peak. Education, public service, humanities and the arts are as much as $40,000 a year lower.

The report 鈥� and the chart to search all 152 majors below 鈥� also shows the earning by degree for students right out of college, as well how much earnings increase when a student adds a graduate degree.

How much earnings should factor into a student鈥檚 choice of major is another debate. Some believe humanities degrees make people more informed citizens and happier adults. Advocates of some of the lower-paying fields argue that society doesn’t function well without them and that individuals can find meaning in other professions that outweigh paychecks.

Matt Hooper, vice president of communications and membership for the Council on Social Work Education, said the value of social workers to mental and behavioral health, often for children and the elderly, is hard to place a value on.

鈥淵ou often hear how that pursuit (of social work degrees) was driven by their desire to make a positive difference in their communities and in the world,鈥� Hooper said. 鈥淪ocial work offers inestimable value in that respect.鈥�

As college costs rise, college loan debt cripples some graduates and Georgetown and others provide more and more data on earning potential, students have been shying away from arts to STEM and other higher-paying majors. That鈥檚 and families to and pick pursuits with better returns instead.

Humanities degrees earned have fallen a third since 2009, the report shows, while more lucrative degrees in computers, statistics and mathematics have grown by 159%. Those findings are similar to , which has also tracked the growth of engineering, health and medical degrees and the declines in humanities and education degrees.

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