STEM majors: the full list, what counts, and what doesn't

Here is the reason: "STEM major" has no single governing definition. In the broad academic sense, STEM covers any field grounded in science, technology, engineering, or math. The federal government maintains a much narrower official list, used to decide eligibility for a specific international-student visa benefit, and plenty of science-heavy majors are not on it. Whether your major counts depends on who is asking and why.

This guide covers a categorized list of STEM majors, straight answers on nursing and psychology, what the highest-paying STEM fields actually pay, the careers these majors lead to, and what changes if you are heading into a STEM major through a community college transfer.

What is a STEM major?

A STEM major is a degree program in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. That is the whole definition, and it is exactly why the term causes so much confusion: it describes a category, not a credential, and no single organization decides what belongs in it.

Your college, a scholarship program, and the federal government can all apply different boundaries to the same word. A scholarship might count environmental studies as STEM while a federal list does not. Your university might house psychology in its college of science while another school places it in social sciences.

So when you ask "is my major STEM," the useful follow-up question is always: STEM according to whom, and for what purpose? The rest of this guide answers it from both angles, the broad academic one and the federal one.

The full list of STEM majors, by category

Most STEM majors fall into six broad academic categories: engineering, computer and information sciences, mathematics and statistics, physical sciences, biological and life sciences, and agricultural and natural resource sciences. A seventh group, health sciences, sits on the boundary and gets classified differently depending on the source.

No article-length list is exhaustive. If you want to browse every major that exists, College Board's BigFuture majors directory is searchable and grouped by area of study.

Whichever category you land in, your first year will include general education requirements alongside your major coursework, and those requirements often transfer differently than major-specific courses do. The overview of general education courses explains how they fit into a degree plan.

Is nursing a STEM major?

In the everyday academic sense, yes: nursing is a science-heavy field built on biology, chemistry, anatomy, pharmacology, and math. Under the federal government's official STEM list, no. Standard registered nursing programs are not designated as STEM for the international-student STEM OPT extension.

The list in question is the Department of Homeland Security's STEM Designated Degree Program List. It exists for one purpose: determining which F-1 international students can apply for a 24-month extension of their post-completion work authorization. It works off Classification of Instructional Programs codes, the numeric codes the Department of Education assigns to academic programs.

Standard registered nursing programs, covering the RN, ASN, BSN, and MSN pathways, carry CIP code 51.3801, which is not among the designated codes. Nursing organizations have petitioned DHS to add it, so far without success.

The wrinkle worth knowing: the DHS list does include selected codes from the health professions series. Medical informatics, for instance, is designated, while several closely related health informatics codes are not. Specialized and research-focused health programs can land on either side of the line.

If this matters to your visa status, do not rely on your degree title. Check the exact six-digit CIP code printed on your Form I-20 against the current DHS list, since two programs with identical names at different schools can carry different codes.

Is psychology a STEM major?

It depends entirely on your concentration. A general psychology degree is not on the federal STEM list. Several specific psychology subfields are, including developmental and adolescent psychology, industrial and organizational psychology, cognitive psychology, and research or experimental psychology tracks.

This is the cleanest example of why a flat yes or no answer online is usually wrong. Two students who both introduce themselves as psychology majors can have completely different STEM status under federal rules, because their programs are coded differently.

Outside the visa context, the answer gets simpler and looser. Psychology is a research-driven, statistics-heavy discipline, and many universities and scholarship programs treat it as a science. Some house it in a college of science, others in social sciences, and both are defensible.

The practical move is the same as with nursing: if a specific benefit hinges on the answer, verify the CIP code for your exact program rather than reasoning from the subject name.

Highest-paying STEM majors

Engineering, computer science, and math-heavy fields like statistics and actuarial science consistently lead STEM pay rankings. The more useful framing, though, is that your salary tracks the occupation you end up in, not the label on your diploma.

Here is what federal wage data shows for some of the fields these majors feed into:

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, mean annual wages, May 2025. Mean wages run higher than what a typical worker earns, since top salaries pull the average up.

Two things stand out. Computer and math occupations average well over $50,000 above the figure for all occupations nationally, which is the real headline for anyone weighing a STEM major. And the spread inside STEM is wide: computer hardware engineers average roughly $56,000 more than the architecture and engineering group they belong to.

Location matters as much as field. The same job title pays very differently in a major metro area than in a smaller market, and cost of living absorbs part of that difference. Entry-level pay also sits below these averages, which include workers with decades of experience. Treat national figures as a starting point, not a prediction of your first paycheck.

What jobs can you get with a STEM major?

STEM majors feed into a wider range of careers than most students expect, and the connection is rarely one to one. A biology degree does not commit you to a lab any more than a math degree commits you to teaching. Here is roughly where each category leads.

• Computer and information sciences: software developer, data analyst, data scientist, information security analyst, systems analyst, database administrator, IT project manager.
• Engineering: civil, mechanical, electrical, or biomedical engineer, plus manufacturing, quality, and project engineering roles across nearly every industry.
• Mathematics and statistics: actuary, statistician, operations research analyst, quantitative analyst, data scientist, risk modeler.
• Biological and life sciences: research technician, lab scientist, clinical research coordinator, biotech and pharmaceutical roles, environmental scientist, and the health professions that require graduate study.
• Physical sciences: chemist, materials scientist, geoscientist, meteorologist, quality control analyst, energy and environmental consultant.

Many STEM graduates also move into roles that are not labeled STEM at all, in product management, consulting, finance, technical sales, and policy, where quantitative training is the actual qualification. If you are unsure which direction fits, that flexibility is a reason to lean toward a quantitative major rather than away from one.

What to know if you're transferring into a STEM major from community college

STEM majors are less forgiving of transfer missteps than other fields, for two specific reasons: coursework runs in strict sequence, and popular STEM programs often limit how many students they admit, separately from the university's own admission decision. Both are manageable, but only if you plan for them early rather than discovering them during your application year.

Course sequences leave no room to improvise

Calculus, general chemistry, physics, and intro programming are built as ladders. Each course is a prerequisite for the next, and they are frequently offered only once per year at smaller community colleges. Miss a term of calculus and you have not lost a class, you have lost a year of the sequence.

This is why STEM transfer plans need to be mapped before your first semester ends rather than during your last one. The guide on what classes to take in community college to transfer is a good starting point for building that sequence around your intended major.

Popular STEM majors have their own admission bar

Getting admitted to a university does not always mean getting admitted to your major. Computer science, engineering, and nursing routinely receive more qualified applicants than they have seats for, so they screen separately. These programs frequently require a supplemental application, a higher minimum GPA than the university's general transfer requirement, or completion of specific prerequisite courses with minimum grades in each.

The terminology varies by system, which makes this hard to research. The California State University system calls these programs impacted. Most University of California campuses call them selective or high demand, and UC San Diego calls them capped. Colorado State University calls them competitive majors. Elsewhere you will see secondary admission, restricted, or limited-enrollment. The mechanic behind every one of those labels is the same, so search your target university's site for the major name plus "admission requirements" rather than guessing which term it uses.

Because those GPA thresholds are calculated from your transferred coursework, it is worth understanding how your community college grades carry over. The explainer on whether transfer credits affect GPA covers how schools handle that calculation.

Find your target university's articulation agreement and its major-specific requirements as early as you can, ideally before you finish your first year. Articulation agreements spell out exactly which community college courses satisfy which university requirements, and they are major-specific for precisely this reason. For the broader process and timeline, the guide on how to transfer colleges covers what happens when.

Planning a STEM Transfer? With the EdVisorly Student App explore universities that fit your goals, track deadlines and requirements, and plan your personalized transfer journey with the AI Transfer Companion.

Frequently asked questions

What is considered a STEM major?

Broadly, any major in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. The exact list depends on the source. A college, a scholarship program, and the federal government's STEM OPT designation each draw the boundary differently, which is why the same major can be counted as STEM in one context and not another.

What are the most popular STEM majors?

Biological and biomedical sciences and engineering lead among STEM fields, with computer and information sciences close behind. Federal data for 2021-22 shows about 131,500 bachelor's degrees conferred in biological and biomedical sciences and about 123,000 in engineering, out of roughly 2.0 million bachelor's degrees total.

Is STEM the hardest major?

There is no objectively hardest major, but STEM coursework is structurally demanding in a specific way. It is cumulative and sequential, so a weak semester in calculus follows you into physics and engineering courses built on top of it. Whether that makes it hard for you depends on your preparation and how your strengths line up, not on the subject alone.

Is nursing a STEM major?

Informally yes, officially no. Nursing is science-heavy and often described as STEM or STEM-adjacent, but standard registered nursing programs are not on the federal government's STEM OPT designated list. The dedicated section above explains the distinction and when it actually matters.

Is psychology a STEM major?

General psychology is not on the federal STEM list, but several specific subfields are, including developmental and adolescent psychology, industrial and organizational psychology, and research-oriented tracks. Your concentration and how your program is coded determine the answer.

Do I need my major to be on an official list for it to "count" as STEM?

Only for specific purposes. The federal list governs eligibility for the international-student STEM OPT extension and nothing else. For scholarships, career planning, graduate school applications, or ordinary conversation, the broader academic definition is what people mean, and your coursework speaks for itself.