As a college student in the late 90s, I used to curse my lack of proficiency at math.  Back then, the perception was that if you could master integral calculus or organic chemistry, you could be the one landing the big paycheck right out of college.

Over at Career Builder, Kate Lorenz shares that when it comes to math, perception equals reality.  Apparently, college students graduating today with a math- or science-related degree are likely to earn significantly higher starting pay than their peers in liberal arts disciplines, according to the 2007 salary survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

Mechanical engineering students graduating in 2007 reported snagging average offers of nearly $54,600. Computer science grads' job offers averaged about $51,070. Accounting grads got offers of about $46,500, while economics majors' offers averaged roughly $47,900. By contrast, liberal arts graduates reported average offers hovering mostly ranging between $30,000 and $35,000. It gets even better for numerically savvy graduates – they might also have an easier time finding that coveted first job.

Alan Weiss, president of Summit Consulting Group, says a primary reason math and science graduates earn more out of college is a simple case of supply and demand: "They're much more immediately applicable in a much smaller supply." Students earning associate’s and bachelor's degrees in liberal arts disciplines outnumber those in mathematic or scientific fields, according to data from the U.S. National Center for Education Statistics.  Weiss also attributes the demand for quantitative majors to the specialized training they receive. "You can immediately put somebody to work in a lab," he says. "It's much more problematic (determining) what to do with people who majored in European history."

Math and science majors' familiarity with numbers can help them transition into many bottom-line driven businesses, according to David Teten, CEO of Nitron Advisers. "Numbers are the language of business," he says.