The highest-earning college major on Wall Street is not what you would expect

You might have a guess which college major is most common among Wall Street professionals.

But do you know which majors end up earning the most money?

Business Insider asked Emolument — a salary-benchmarking website that collects self-reported pay data — which college majors are the most lucrative on Wall Street.

They gathered data on 840 finance professionals in New York at the analyst, associate, vice president, and director level.

Respondents come from a number of firms, including Citigroup, JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank, Barclays, and Bank of America Merrill Lynch, as well as smaller banks, asset managers, and hedge funds. They are all front-office professionals, and two-thirds work at banks, while one-third works on the buy side.

The results vary depending on whether you look at entry-level or senior positions, but one thing's clear: The highest earners are not the finance majors.

Here's what we found:

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The highest-earning analysts studied management and strategy.

At the associate level, the highest earnings were math and statistics majors.

The highest-paid vice presidents were engineers by training.