The economic value of a bachelor's degree

The Chronicle of Higher Education has a very interesting interactive graph displaying the "median earnings by major and subject area."  The basic graph (not interactive) is given below (you will need to click on it to enlarge it).

It is pretty neat and certainly interesting.  If you go to the link, you can see much more detail within the groups

As a person strongly interested in data, I'm always drawn to this kind of information.  However, I also inevitably end up asking myself this question:  Do students research the economic implications of their choice of college major?  I don't know.  I would like to see some good research on this.