Juno: Duke math majors earn two hundred ninety-seven thousand dollars! Mochi: median, four years out; and that figure is seventeen people. Queen Honeycomb: only graduates with federal aid, from a two-year window. The Rust Baron: then I'll major in math and earn that too! Mochi: seventeen people is a hint, not a promise. Juno: quest lesson, count the people behind the number.
The best-paid degree in new federal earnings data is maths at Duke, whose graduates earned a median $297,029 four years out, but the figure rests on just 17 people, those who got federal aid and graduated in a two-year period starting in 2017, and it surfaced because a 2025 law meant to expose degrees that pay too little also lights up the ones that pay the most.
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Graduates Who Earn High Wages
The New York Times · Oct 12, 2026
