Students who graduate with a computer science bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley have the highest median earnings of those who pursued any field of study across the UC and CSU systems.

At $150,000, the median annual earnings two years after graduation for Berkeley computer science majors is significantly higher than those of their peers at UCLA ($130,000), Cal Poly San Luis Obispo ($114,000) and UC San Diego ($106,000).

That’s according to a Chronicle analysis of data from the University of California and California State University systems on median annual earnings of undergraduate alumni by field of study. The data comprises earnings of alumni working in California but excludes those who are self-employed or work for the federal government.

The analysis covers 22 fields of study, each encompassing multiple majors. For example, the English field includes comparative literature, English and English composition. (See the section at the bottom of the story for a list of majors within each field.)

Students of certain majors, like nursing and business, often obtain advanced degrees later in life, which can lead to higher salaries. The data analyzed in this story, however, does not break out earnings by graduate school attendance and includes both alumni who received advanced degrees and those who did not.

Overall, nursing majors at Cal State schools and UC degrees in computer science, business and engineering tend to yield the highest earnings. Meanwhile, those who studied the arts, anthropology and foreign languages are among the lowest earners.

When comparing campuses, UC Berkeley generally has higher median earnings than other UC and CSU schools, particularly for the more lucrative majors, perhaps due to Berkeley’s proximity to Silicon Valley’s high-paying tech industry.

For example, the earnings gap between computer science graduates from UC Berkeley and UCLA — the two campuses with the highest earnings for this major — is about $20,000 two years after graduation and widens to $33,000 at the 10 years mark. Similar gaps exist among engineering and business majors.

In contrast, earnings differences across campus are less pronounced in majors that lead to lower-paying careers. For instance, median earnings for people who graduated from the four schools with the highest earnings for arts majors 10 years post-graduation are within $2,000.

While computer science and nursing degrees tend to lead to six-figure salaries soon after graduation, people with other degrees don’t see such high incomes until five or 10 years into their careers.

Take, for instance, a Berkeley business major. Two years after graduation, the median income is about $91,000, ranking No. 33 among all majors and campuses analyzed. At five years, the median earnings rises to $129,000 — ranking No. 17 overall — and by 10 years, it reaches $192,000 and is the second highest in the dataset, behind only a Berkeley computer science degree.

This rapid salary growth among business majors may be due to alumni attending graduate business schools a few years out of college and earning MBAs, which can significantly boost incomes.

In general, computer science majors earn the most immediately after college and continue to see strong wage growth. Nursing degrees also lead to high early-career salaries, but raises over time are more modest.

Let’s compare, for example, the earnings of a UCLA computer science major with those of a nursing student from San Francisco State University. Both earn a median of $130,000 two years after college, but by 10 years post-graduation, the typical UCLA alum’s earnings grow to $186,000, while the S.F. State nursing degree’s median income increases to $163,000.

Across most UC and CSU campuses, salary growth for nursing graduates is more limited compared to other high-earning majors. The change in median earnings from two to 10 years post-graduation is 22% for nursing majors, compared with 55% for computer science graduates, 60% for engineering students and 69% for business majors.

Fields of study

• Anthropology (CIP 4502): Anthropology, Anthropology & Geography
• Arts (CIP 50): Art, Art (Studio/Professional Performance), Art History, Arts Administration, Broadcast Arts, Cinema/Film, Cinema/Film (Professional Performance), Communication Design, Computer Animation and Game Development, Dance, Dance (Professional Performance), Design, Fine and Creative Arts, Graphic Design, Industrial Arts, Industrial Design, Interior Design, Multimedia, Music, Music (Professional Performance), Music Industry & Technology, Musical Theatre, Performing Arts, Photography, Telecommunications/Multimedia, Theatre Arts, Theatre Art (Professional Performance)
• Biology (CIP 26): Agricultural Biology & Plant Science, Biochemistry, Bioinformatics, Biology, Biotechnology, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Biology, Human Biological Sciences, Marine Biology, Microbiology
• Business (CIP 52): Accountancy, Agricultural Business, Apparel Merchandising & Management, Business Administration, Business Economics, Business Education, Construction Management, Finance, Hospitality and Tourism, Hotel and Restaurant/Hospitality Management, International Business, Labor Studies, Management, Marketing, Transportation and Logistics Management, Wine Business Strategies
• Computer science (CIP 11): Computer Engineering, Computer Engineering Technology, Computer Science, Computer Science and Information Technology, Computer Systems, Information Systems, Information Technology, Information Technology and Communications Design
• Chemistry (CIP 4005): Biochemistry, Chemistry
• Economics (CIP 4506): Economics
• Education (CIP 13): Child Development/Early Childhood Education, Instructional Media/Technology, Kinesiology/Physical Education, Mathematics Education, Music Education
• Engineering (CIP 14): Aerospace Engineering, Agricultural Engineering, Architectural Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Engineering Technology, Construction Engineering, Construction Engineering Technology/Management, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Electronic Engineering Technology, Engineering, Engineering Science, Engineering Technology, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Resources Engineering, Facilities Engineering Technology, Industrial Engineering, Industrial Management and Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering Technology, Marine Engineering Technology, Materials Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering Technology, Mechatronic Engineering, Metallurgical Engineering, Software Engineering, Surveying Engineering
• English/Literature (CIP 23): Comparative Literature, English, English Composition
• Foreign language (CIP 16): Arabic Language, Chinese, Classics, Deaf Studies, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Language Studies/World Languages and Cultures, Linguistics, Russian, Spanish, World Languages and Cultures
• Geography (CIP 4507): Anthropology & Geography, Geography
• History (CIP 54): History
• Mathematics (CIP 27): Applied Mathematics, Applied Statistics, Mathematics, Statistics
• Philosophy (CIP 38): Philosophy, Philosophy and Religion, Religious Studies
• Physics (CIP 4008): Applied Physics, Biomedical Physics, Chemical Physics, Physics
• Political science (CIP 4510): Government and Journalism, Political Science/Government
• Psychology (CIP 42): Behavioral Science, Cognitive Studies, Forensic Psychology, Psychology, Social, Science/Social and Behavioral Sciences
• Public administration (CIP 44): Human Services, Public Administration, Social Work
• Public health (CIP 5122): Environmental and Occupational Health, Health and Safety Studies, Health Communication, Health Science, Health Services Administration, Public Health, Public Health Promotion
• Sociology (CIP 4511): Sociology