Career prospects, and especially expected lifetime salaries, can be a strong motivator or deterrent in pursuing certain college degrees.

Not all degrees guarantee higher lifetime earnings compared to entering the workforce after high school without a degree - as some degrees may end up costing more than their financial benefits.

This graphic, via Visual Capitalist's Kayla Zhu, shows the average return on investment of a degree in the U.S., based on analysis from CollegeNPV of data from the U.S. Department of Education and Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The return on investment of a degree is the expected lifetime value of the degree (net of debt) compared to entering the workforce after high school.

Below, we show the average return on investment of various degrees in the U.S.

Field of StudyAverage return on investmentEngineering$570,616Computer and Information Sciences$477,229Mathematics$340,875Engineering Technicians$311,141Business$205,191Architecture$196,711Nursing and Health Professions$194,756Physics, Chemistry and Geology$168,822Social Sciences$118,454Interdisciplinary Studies$69,656Biology$63,913Agriculture$59,556Area, Ethnic, Cultural, Gender and Group Studies$42,959Legal Studies$38,999Natural Resources and Conservation$28,985Communication and Journalism$28,654Homeland Security, Law Enforcement and Firefighting$27,284Foreign Languages$25,750Public Administration and Social Services$7,787Philosophy and Religious Studies$6,011History$4,938Fitness, Parks and Recreation-$1,078Liberal Arts and General Studies-$13,337Psychology-$15,644Education-$20,075Family and Human Sciences-$24,540Communications Technologies-$28,911English Language-$39,057Theology-$91,749Visual and Performing Arts-$104,015

Engineering, computer and information sciences, mathematics, and engineering technician degrees are the most valuable degrees in the U.S. when looking at expected lifetime income minus debt compared to working right after high school without a degree.

As for specific programs, Harvard University’s computer science degree ranks first for ROI, according to CollegeNPV.

Graduates of this program can expect an ROI of over $4 million in their lifetime, with $256,539 in median income and $14,000 in median debt.

On the other end, humanities degrees like visual and performing arts, theology, and English are among the least valuable degrees when looking at lifetime earnings.

With a negative ROI of about $39,000, English language programs have also experienced the greatest decrease in graduates, with 32% fewer students completing these programs compared to 10 years prior.

To learn more about some of the top universities in the U.S., check out this graphic that shows which universities produce the most startup founders.