Joseph HeinrichSoftware engineer
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Oct 25, 2026Data

After the Major

See which occupations are connected to a college major and compare typical earnings one and four years after graduation.

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How to use this project

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How to explore

College majors differ in the occupations they prepare people for. This page pairs those federal links with published earnings after a bachelor's degree.

  1. Start with business administration

    Read its 43 occupation links, then choose another broad field or major.

  2. Follow the links

    Read the occupations connected to the selected major in the federal crosswalk.

  3. Compare reported earnings

    See how the one- and four-year medians differ among majors in the same broad field.

  4. Step back

    Compare broad fields by their median occupation links, four-year earnings, or earnings difference.

Major
A four-digit federal category that groups related college programs.
Occupation link
A federal crosswalk connection showing that a program can provide knowledge or skills relevant to an occupation.
Median earnings
The middle institution-level value after reported earnings figures are put in order.
Broad field
A two-digit federal family that groups related majors, such as business or engineering.
Side Quest / DataStart with business administration, choose any of 285 bachelor's majors, inspect its linked occupations, compare one- and four-year median earnings within its broad field, and then rerank all 37 fields.

College majors · linked occupations · reported earnings

After the
major

See which occupations are connected to a college major and compare typical earnings one and four years after graduation.

A major can connect to one occupation in the federal crosswalk—or dozens. College Scorecard earnings add another view of what happens after a bachelor's degree.

01 · Choose a major

Begin with a field, then pick one major.

The other views follow the same selection. Start with business administration, the major with the most links in this snapshot.

Selected majorBusiness Administration, Management and OperationsClassification of Instructional Programs code 52.02
Crosswalk links43distinct occupations
Year one median$45,717reported earnings
Year four median$64,881+$19,164 from year one

These medians pool institution-level figures. They are not a promise of what one graduate will earn, and the one- and four-year figures do not necessarily follow the same people.

02 · Follow its links

43 occupations are linked to this major.

Read outward from the major. Each label is a distinct occupation in the federal crosswalk—not a count of graduates who entered that job.

52.02Business Administration, Management and Operations

Actuaries

Occupation code 15-2011

Administrative Services Managers

Occupation code 11-3012

Agents and Business Managers of Artists, Performers, and Athletes

Occupation code 13-1011

Architectural and Engineering Managers

Occupation code 11-9041

Business Operations Specialists, All Other

Occupation code 13-1199

Business Teachers, Postsecondary

Occupation code 25-1011

Chief Executives

Occupation code 11-1011

Compensation and Benefits Managers

Occupation code 11-3111

Compensation, Benefits, and Job Analysis Specialists

Occupation code 13-1141

Computer and Information Systems Managers

Occupation code 11-3021

Construction Managers

Occupation code 11-9021

Cost Estimators

Occupation code 13-1051
Show all 43 linked occupations
  • Actuaries15-2011
  • Administrative Services Managers11-3012
  • Agents and Business Managers of Artists, Performers, and Athletes13-1011
  • Architectural and Engineering Managers11-9041
  • Business Operations Specialists, All Other13-1199
  • Business Teachers, Postsecondary25-1011
  • Chief Executives11-1011
  • Compensation and Benefits Managers11-3111
  • Compensation, Benefits, and Job Analysis Specialists13-1141
  • Computer and Information Systems Managers11-3021
  • Construction Managers11-9021
  • Cost Estimators13-1051
  • Education Administrators, All Other11-9039
  • Education Administrators, Postsecondary11-9033
  • Entertainment and Recreation Managers, Except Gambling11-9072
  • Facilities Managers11-3013
  • Financial Managers11-3031
  • Financial Risk Specialists13-2054
  • Financial Specialists, All Other13-2099
  • First-Line Supervisors of Mechanics, Installers, and Repairers49-1011
  • First-Line Supervisors of Office and Administrative Support Workers43-1011
  • First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers51-1011
  • First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers41-1011
  • Fundraisers13-1131
  • Fundraising Managers11-2033
  • General and Operations Managers11-1021
  • Human Resources Managers11-3121
  • Human Resources Specialists13-1071
  • Industrial Production Managers11-3051
  • Insurance Underwriters13-2053
  • Logisticians13-1081
  • Management Analysts13-1111
  • Managers, All Other11-9199
  • Medical and Health Services Managers11-9111
  • Natural Sciences Managers11-9121
  • Personal Service Managers, All Other11-9179
  • Project Management Specialists13-1082
  • Purchasing Agents, Except Wholesale, Retail, and Farm Products13-1023
  • Purchasing Managers11-3061
  • Sales Managers11-2022
  • Social and Community Service Managers11-9151
  • Training and Development Managers11-3131
  • Transportation, Storage, and Distribution Managers11-3071

03 · Compare earnings

How do reported earnings differ across business majors?

Each row runs from the median one year after graduation to the median four years after. Select a row to carry that major through the page.

$17k$93k

Same majors · another angle

Do more occupation links come with a larger earnings difference?

Move right for more crosswalk links and up for a larger difference between the two reported medians. The view describes this field only; it does not show cause.

Business Administration, Management and Operations has 43 linked occupations and a +$19,164 difference between its one- and four-year medians.

04 · Step back

Compare all 37 broad fields.

Each bar is the median across majors retained for that field. Choose a measure, then select a field to return to its majors.

A field represented by one major has that major's value as its median. Differences in fields, institutions, programs, graduates, years, and local labor markets all matter; this view does not rank the value of a degree.

How to read the data

Two federal systems are joined here.

MajorA four-digit Classification of Instructional Programs category. It groups related programs and is broader than a course title at one college.

Occupation linkA connection in the official 2020 major-to-occupation crosswalk. It shows a related occupation, not where every graduate worked.

Median earningsThe middle institution-level figure after values are put in order. Half are above it and half below it.

One year and four yearsTime after completing a bachelor's degree in the College Scorecard. The published pooled values may represent different cohorts.

Methods and limits

The selected set has 285 majors, 1,873 links from 6,097 official crosswalk rows, and 37 broad fields. Eight majors have no four-year value and stay in the occupation view but not in difference summaries.

TidyTuesday supplied the major and College Scorecard earnings table. This project removes its AI-exposure columns, ignores its AI-filtered link counts, and joins the retained majors to the complete official NCES/BLS crosswalk instead.

College Scorecard figures are pooled across institutions. The crosswalk is a classification tool, not a record of graduate destinations. None of these views controls for program mix, location, selection, later education, hours worked, inflation, or changes between cohorts. The page does not estimate a degree's return or predict an individual outcome.

A standard-library Python reducer verifies the exact CC0 major table and official federal crosswalk, validates 285 unique majors and 1,873 unique major-to-occupation links, removes unused AI-exposure columns, and writes a 199,688-byte static snapshot with no runtime request.

Why this exists

The question

Carrying one major through its federal occupation links, two published earnings measures, a field comparison, and a national field ranking will make the difference between educational pathways and observed graduate outcomes easier to see.

What to try

Start with business administration, choose any of 285 bachelor's majors, inspect its linked occupations, compare one- and four-year median earnings within its broad field, and then rerank all 37 fields.

Method and limits

About the data

I selected the October 20, 2026 TidyTuesday release through the allowlisted TidyTuesday provider and pinned commit `a13ab0335359af25deb6685fe969ccfbb0e00517`. The repository applies CC0 1.0 to the published major table. That table derives its earnings from U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard field-of-study data. It retains 285 majors that had both an earnings value and a match in the source release's AI analysis. This project asks a different question, does not use the AI-exposure values, and does not use the release's AI-filtered occupation counts.

Instead, the project joins those 285 majors to the complete official 2020 Classification of Instructional Programs to 2018 Standard Occupational Classification crosswalk from the National Center for Education Statistics and Bureau of Labor Statistics. The exact `ai_salary_majors.csv` file is 39,266 bytes with SHA-256 `710124272594e7f3a9a09943e753be00b06692c3e7cf7bd2ebcf54c2f69abe2d`. The exact `CIP2020_SOC2018_Crosswalk.xlsx` file is 428,901 bytes with SHA-256 `ba3d59a191b9d977a5c457a66b9348c4f2f7963aafacf72c0b80113b46bf0ab8`. A standard-library Python builder verifies both hashes and schemas, 6,097 source crosswalk rows, 285 unique four-digit major codes, 1,873 unique retained major-to-occupation links, and 37 broad fields. It writes a 199,688-byte browser snapshot with SHA-256 `1638e49923ea08cffaa8a9a97aca47f055e456516612d586c47dbfd560fd6bab`. The page imports this snapshot and makes no runtime request.

For each major, the page retains the median earnings published for bachelor's degree completers one and four years after completion, the number of contributing institutions and measured graduates, and every related occupation in the official crosswalk after six-digit program codes are grouped to the four-digit major level. The earnings difference is four-year median minus one-year median. Broad-field values are unweighted medians across the retained majors, so each major counts once. Eight majors without a four-year figure remain in the occupation view but are excluded from difference summaries.

The crosswalk is qualitative. It describes theoretical links between program content and occupational knowledge or skills; it is not a record of where graduates worked and does not mean every graduate qualifies for every linked job. College Scorecard values pool institution-level figures, and the one- and four-year measures may describe different cohorts. The 285-major set is not every bachelor's major in the College Scorecard. The views do not control for institution or program mix, graduate selection, location, later education, hours worked, inflation, work experience, or labor-market change. They do not estimate a degree's return, rank the value of a field, show individual salaries, or predict a person's outcome.

Skills used

  • Data analysis
  • Data engineering
  • Statistical reasoning
  • Systems design
  • Visualization
  • Information design
  • Interaction design
  • Visual design
  • Creative coding
  • Product thinking
  • Editorial storytelling
  • Accessibility
  • Performance

What the data shows

  1. The official crosswalk contains 1,873 links for the 285 retained bachelor's majors. The median major has five linked occupations; the range runs from one to 43.
  2. Business administration has the most links in the snapshot at 43. Its published median earnings are $45,717 one year after completion and $64,881 four years after, a difference of $19,164 between the two measures.
  3. Among the 277 majors with both earnings figures, the median difference is $19,718. Every four-year median is higher in this snapshot, but the measures can represent different cohorts and do not establish individual earnings growth.
  4. Real estate development has the largest difference between its published medians at $57,939, from $49,353 one year after completion to $107,292 four years after. The data do not identify why the figures differ.

Sources

TidyTuesday / Data Science Learning Community · CC0 1.0 UniversalCollege majors, occupation links, and earnings — pinned release ↗U.S. Department of Education · Public-use U.S. government dataCollege Scorecard field-of-study data ↗National Center for Education Statistics · Public-use U.S. government data2020 CIP–SOC crosswalk workbook ↗National Center for Education Statistics · Public-use U.S. government publicationGuidelines for using the 2020 CIP–SOC crosswalk ↗