Software engineer or computer science I made 180k a year all cash comp first year out of college in NYC. I have two years of experience now earning close to 300k after switching jobs six months ago.
I studied aerospace engineering. With an MS in aerospace engineering, my starting salary was 78,000. Today, it's worth $122,460. However, I would not have earned that much out of undergrad. I'm guessing I would have gotten around $105,000 (in today's dollars). Also, I did my MS at a top-5 school. I'm guessing the salary would have been less out of a lower tier school.
With that said, I have a comfortable work-from-home job, and as a mother of young children, I actually work 4 days per week. I'm sure there's more money in finance, medicine and law, but my career has been fun and interesting, and I've always been treated well.
TODAY, to make good money, you must be a high performing software engineer and go work for Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, etc. You can make very good money, more than you can make in engineering. However, it's hard to say which way the market will go in future.
Finance is the best if all you care about is money. In that case, go to a flagship state school and then do an MS in Management Science and Engineering at Stanford or the equivalent (even if you have to pay for it) and you'll be raking it in.
But as a hard-working engineer, you'll see reasonable salary growth. 15 years in, I'm making 230K. It allows me to live very comfortably. Not as comfortably as my sister or BILs in finance, but they work MUCH harder than me.
You sound like a real winner and not entitled in any way so I think you'll be able to walk into any business and just tell them what you want and they should be grateful you'd consider them.
Just tell them about your model wife and 14:15 5k time and that'll seal the deal for sure.
Best bet is to combine comp sci and statistics. Investment banking is the other option but this would only work if you are at an ivy or other top school (MIT, Williams, etc.)
So…. I am a retired person and, in hind sight, am glad I chose my career based on interest rather than on what it might pay at the start. I enjoyed career enough to do well in it - and higher pay eventually followed. Picking a career purely for the starting salary seems like it would have a high failure rate. Kudos, though if interest and high starting salaries align.
I’d get a EE degree and specialize in Embedded Engineering. I run a company in Boulder where we pay north of $170k to young engineers with a few years experience in that field.
OP I strongly advise you to stop thinking like this. I chased the money coming out of college and all it resulted in was me moving away from everyone and everything I know and love to work unhealthy hours in an environment where most of my human interaction is getting a nasty text message because I didn't answer somebody's email they exact way they would have preferred.
A lot of this will depend on both where you go to school and where your first job is. But 120,000 is a lot of money, you'll notice MIT has the best early career average at 98,000 and most top schools are closer to 75,000
Your best bet is to get into computer science or sales. Finance and software are probably the best paying sales jobs. Great marketers will do great too (sales at scale).
There are probably some other routes through engineering, for instance chemical engineering in the Oil and Gas industry, robotics, and probably some careers in electric engineering. But you will have to be impressive as an engineer to make this work.
I got a 790 on the SAT math section but only 560 on the reading, so I think it's pretty clear what my strengths and weaknesses are just on that. My major is undecided right now but I'm leaning towards something that's math heavy.
SAT scores and $5 might get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks. might even help you get a job at Starbucks
You can get that salary right after grad school if you go to law school or med school. Will be difficult to get that salary with just a bachelors degree. Good luck!
You can make this after med school only after a minimum of 3 years of brutal, below minimum wage residency.