When considering a college, high school students may want to focus more on what to study rather than whether to attend a private or public institution.

According to USA Today, the U.S. Education Department (ED) has released new research suggesting science and math majors tend to earn more in an annual salary after graduating. The survey is based on the class of 2008 and found little discrepancies between public and private school graduates.

The ED previously released data that suggested recent college grads are not struggling to find work quite as much as previously believed, the Huffington Post reported earlier in the week. While the national unemployment rate is 6.1 percent, about 6.7 percent of recent college graduates do not have a job.

The new ED study found 16 percent of the survey subjects had degrees in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) made more than $10,000 more than other students. On average STEM students made $65,000 a year while other students made about $49,500 a year.

For the survey, the ED tracked the four-year academic career of 17,110 students who entered college in 2008. The survey found a gender gap in annual earnings with males tending to earn about $10,000 more than females.

In a lot of cases, STEM jobs have fewer promotion ladders than other positions," C.N. Le, a sociologist at the University of Massachusetts, told USA Today.

For example, finance and other business degree-holders tend to have more opportunities for promotions and their professional field sometimes allows for additional income via commission. In artistic or humanities fields, graduates tend to have more trouble finding work and moving up the ladder, but pay can be erratic, depending the field of work.

The new study also found Asian graduates earned more than students of other ethnicities, making an average of $62,500 a year. Comparatively, Hispanics made $47,300 a year, blacks made $48,800 and whites made $52,400.