Comparing two college degrees by salary alone is easy.
It is also a good way to make a bad decision.
Suppose finance graduates earn more than public health graduates. That tells you something.
It does not tell you:
- what your college will cost;
- how much graduates borrow;
- whether the degree usually leads directly to work;
- whether graduate school is part of the path;
- how widely outcomes vary between colleges;
- whether you actually have a realistic chance of finishing the major.
DegreeVerdict's comparison should put those questions on one screen.
Start with the same credential level
The first rule is boring and important.
Compare bachelor's with bachelor's.
Associate with associate.
Master's with master's.
A bachelor's degree in biology followed by medical school is not financially equivalent to a bachelor's degree in nursing that leads directly to RN work.
If a field commonly requires additional education for the career you want, add that path explicitly.
Compare graduate earnings
Use College Scorecard field-of-study earnings for the same credential level and a clearly labeled reporting period.
Do not substitute one BLS occupation wage.
A degree feeds many occupations.
Internal link: Salary by Degree
The interface should answer:
What do graduates in these fields report earning?
not:
What does the highest-paid job associated with this field pay?
Compare federal debt
Debt changes the payoff.
If Major A reports somewhat higher earnings but leaves borrowers with much higher federal debt, the advantage is less clear.
The comparison card should show:
- median federal debt;
- debt-to-earnings ratio as a descriptive screen;
- exact debt definition;
- missing-data status.
Do not call federal debt "total college cost."
It is not.
Compare what the colleges actually cost
Degree choice and college choice interact.
A finance degree at College A may cost less than a sociology degree at College B.
That means national major averages cannot answer your personal decision.
Let users choose actual programs and show institution net-price context.
Where household-income net-price bands are available, use them carefully.
The most useful comparison is the offer the student actually has.
Compare employment, not just salary
Use Census ACS employment data by field of degree as a national labor-market measure.
Show:
- employment rate;
- unemployment rate;
- labor-force participation;
- sample size;
- methodology link.
Internal link: Employment Rate by Major
This can reveal a major that pays moderately but has strong labor-market attachment, or a high-paying field with a narrower path.
Compare the likely next degree
This is one of the most important and least visible variables.
Nursing
Often employable at the bachelor's level.
Biology
Many students pursue professional or graduate school, but not all.
Political science
Can lead directly to work, while law school is a separate optional investment.
Psychology
Many clinical paths require graduate education.
A bachelor's degree that looks cheap can become expensive when it is only step one.
Compare the college effect
National major rankings hide variation by institution.
For each selected major, show the distribution of program earnings across colleges.
Then let the user select actual schools.
A reader comparing computer science and finance should be able to discover that:
The national CS median is higher, but the finance program at my affordable public university may have a better payoff than the expensive CS offer I received elsewhere.
That is the kind of insight we make easy.
Do not create a fake precision score
A 91.4 "degree score" looks authoritative.
It may hide arbitrary weights.
If DegreeVerdict eventually creates a composite score, the formula should be public and adjustable.
Until then, show the ingredients.
A transparent comparison table is better than a mysterious number.
Suggested columns:
| Metric | Degree A | Degree B | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reported earnings | Not available | Not available | Post-college outcome |
| Median federal debt | Not available | Not available | Borrower burden |
| Employment rate | Not available | Not available | Labor-market attachment |
| Related occupation outlook | Not available | Not available | Career context |
| Graduate school common? | Not available | Not available | Additional investment |
| Program price at selected college | Not available | Not available | Your likely cost |
| Institution graduation rate | Not available | Not available | College-level completion context |
Institution graduation rate is context, not major completion
IPEDS provides institution-level completion data.
Do not display that as:
Biology graduation rate: 84%
unless you actually have a reliable major-specific completion measure.
Label it:
Institution six-year graduation rate: 84%
That tells the user something useful without inventing precision.
A hypothetical comparison: biology vs. nursing
Imagine a student interested in healthcare.
Biology may offer a broad scientific base and a route toward medicine or research.
Nursing offers a more direct route into licensed clinical work.
The comparison should ask:
- Which work do you actually want?
- How much does each program cost?
- What do graduates report earning?
- How much debt do borrowers leave with?
- Does your target career need graduate school?
- What happens if your first plan changes?
Internal link: Is Biology a Good Major?
Internal link: Is Nursing Worth It?
Now the data supports a decision instead of replacing one.
A hypothetical comparison: data science vs. computer science
These fields overlap.
Computer science may offer broader software flexibility. Data science may be more direct for analytics and modeling.
The comparison should show actual program outcomes and curriculum differences rather than repeating a national salary average.
Internal link: Is Data Science a Good Major?
Internal link: Is Computer Science a Good Major?
How to make the final choice
A useful five-step order:
1. Remove degrees you do not want to study
Completion matters.
2. Remove degrees that do not lead toward work you would consider
A salary is not a career.
3. Compare earnings and employment
Use real field-level data.
4. Compare your actual college costs
This can reverse a national ranking.
5. Stress-test the plan
What happens if you do not attend graduate school? What if you switch careers? What if it takes an extra year?
The more robust degree often deserves extra weight.
Let users compare up to three degrees, not ten
More options sound more powerful.
They often make tools worse.
A three-column comparison is enough for most real decisions and remains readable on desktop and mobile.
On mobile, show one degree as the baseline and let users swipe or switch the comparison target.
Core metrics should remain visible without horizontal gymnastics.
Every comparison needs a "why this matters" layer
Numbers are not self-explanatory.
Next to each metric, offer a short plain-English note.
Example:
Median federal debt<br/>"What borrowers in this reported field/credential typically accumulated in federal student debt under the Scorecard definition."
Employment rate<br/>"Share employed among the DegreeVerdict ACS comparison population, not a college job-placement rate."
This is where good product design and good editorial work meet.
Support shareable comparison URLs
A reader comparing biology, nursing and public health should be able to save or send that comparison.
Example structure:
`/compare/degrees/?a=biology&b=nursing&c=public-health`
This has SEO and product benefits only if implemented carefully.
Canonicalize parameterized comparison pages to the main tool unless a specific comparison page has substantial unique editorial content and is intentionally indexable.
Do not accidentally create thousands of thin indexed combinations.
Add a "change my assumptions" panel
For ROI scenarios, let the user adjust:
- estimated personal net price;
- expected borrowing;
- whether graduate school is planned;
- years of additional education;
- optional salary-growth assumption if a defensible model exists.
Clearly separate user-entered assumptions from federal observed data.
The UI should never make a hypothetical projection look like a government statistic.
Use the comparison as a starting point
If someone compares biology and nursing, surface:
- Is Biology a Good Major?
- Is Nursing Worth It?
- Salary by Degree
- Employment Rate by Major
This is not merely SEO internal linking.
It helps the reader understand why the numbers differ.
Comparison pages should expose missing data instead of smoothing it away
Real federal data is messy.
One degree may have program earnings at College A while another is suppressed.
The worst response is to silently substitute a national figure in the same visual slot.
Instead show:
Program earnings unavailable<br/>National field earnings available →
That makes the hierarchy explicit.
A reader can still compare, but they understand when the evidence is less specific.
Trust comes partly from resisting the urge to make every box look complete.
The DegreeVerdict verdict
The right degree comparison is not:
Which major earns more?
It is:
What does each path cost, what do graduates earn, how much do they borrow, how strong is the labor market, and how much additional education does the career require?
Put those on one page and students can make a much better decision.
Compare two degrees side by side →
Keep exploring on DegreeVerdict
- Compare Colleges: The Data That Actually Matters
- What Degree Should I Get?
- Highest-Paying College Majors
- Average Student Debt After Graduation
- Best Return on Investment Colleges
Sources and further reading
- U.S. Department of Education: College Scorecard Field of Study technical documentation
- U.S. Census Bureau: American Community Survey PUMS documentation
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Occupation Finder
- NCES: Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System
About the data
We combine College Scorecard field-of-study earnings/debt, institution-level College Scorecard/IPEDS cost and completion context, Census ACS employment analysis, and BLS occupation context. Each metric must preserve its own definition and reporting period rather than being blended into an unexplained score.