Each quarter, the National Association of Colleges and Employers publish a listing of "Average Yearly Salary Offers for Bachelor's degree candidates. The data presented in the graph below were taken from their Salary Survey for Fall 2005 and is derived from a total of 20,607 job offers compiled over seventy-nine employment categories. The salary data are displayed in rank order.

Interestingly, students graduating with a Bachelor's degree in geology and related sciences reported an average annual offered salary of just under $40,000 ranking this job category at a respectable 52nd percentile. For comparison, biological/life sciences ($31,713, 26th percentile) and chemistry ($38,635, 48th percentile) fell below geology. Conversely, physics majors received significantly higher offers ($44,700, 71st percentile).

Environmental science/studies majors fell far below students in the other sciences in attracting competitive starting salary offers ($29,920, 12th percentile). From the data, it is unclear to what extent this low average salary is driven by students with non-technical degrees that focused on public affairs or public policy.

Education majors with secondary certification received an average offer of $31,845 falling at the 26th percentile - nearly identical to biology majors. …