Dirk Hanlon: Duke math majors earn a median two hundred ninety-seven thousand dollars. Gus: son, you're majoring in math, at Duke, tonight. Dot: father, that median is seventeen people with federal aid. Nate: seventeen people, I'll just find them. Lorraine: he got a C in fractions, dear. Gus: a high C.
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
