MSNBC - The choice of undergraduate major in college is strongly tied to a student's future earnings, with the highest-paying majors providing salaries of about 300 percent more than the lowest-paying, according to a study released Tuesday. College graduates overall make 84 percent more over a lifetime than those with only high school diplomas, the study said. But further analysis of 171 majors shows that various undergraduate majors can lead to significantly different median wages. Petroleum engineering majors make about $120,000 a year, compared with $29,000 annually for counseling psychology majors, researchers found. Math and computer science majors earn $98,000 in salary while early childhood education majors get paid about $36,000. "It's important that you go to college and get a (bachelor's degree), but it's almost three to four times more important what you take," said Anthony Carnevale, director of Georgetown's Center on Education and the Workforce.
Kinda wish someone broke out these charts and graphs back when CW was a little tike, making his college major choices, but alas, I’m making due with my lot in life, middle manager by day, blogger by night for roughly 70 cents a day.
I mean if anyone ever told me that my PSC major wouldn’t have been worth the paper it was written on without a further law or masters degree and I’d end up middle managing people and slaving away over numbers and excel sheets, well I’d probably have just majored in math or some shit so at least my career path would make sense. But alas, I listened to Guidance counselors and followed my interests…idiot.
Couple facts from the article:
-"The most popular major group is business, accounting for 25 percent of all students. The least popular are industrial arts and agriculture, with 1.6 percent each." – For kids who are intersted in business, and kids who don’t know what else to take. Facts are facts. I knew dozens of business majors in college, they all thought they were so important and prepared going to all these “presentations and group projects” I’m fairly certain I make more than most of them these days, in their field. Make of it what you will.
-"Law and public policy has the highest concentration of African-Americans (14 percent)" – Obama must have pushed them over the top?
-"Fields with virtually no unemployment: geological and geophysical engineering, military technologies, pharmacology and school student counseling…"- Huh? Student counseling? This is outright confusing. Don’t middle schools have like 1 per 600 sutdents or so? And maybe 1 more in highschool? And what is their job anyway, to blow smoke up kids asses about the future and achieving anything you believe in? You see Johnny over there with the gauged ears and purple hair, he’s going to be cleaning up shit in the bathroom at McDonald's or joining the military. That’s it. Those are his choices. Stop lying to kids for job security.
