What's your college major worth?

[Splashdown]

I saw this on Ace of Spades and I thought it was really interesting. Parents really don't talk much to their kids about careers.

What’s Your College Major Worth?
As someone who teaches humanities in an expensive private liberal arts college, I like to keep abreast of the trends in the job market for my students. This useful chart from the Chronicle of Higher Education takes US Census data and breaks out the median income for graduates depending on their major.

As you might expect, some of the tastiest salaries come from the toughest subjects. Petroleum engineering majors earn $120,000. Brown jobs really do rule. Ecology majors on the other hand get a little more than one third of that: $44,000. And remember: that isn’t a starting salary; it’s the median income for all the people in the field up to age 65. Stuffing envelopes for Greenpeace does not often lead to great things.

For math and computer science degrees, you are looking at $98,000.  “Counseling psychology” majors earn $29,000; community organizing majors do somewhat better (though they trail ecologists) at $38,000.

The humanities offer some surprises — and from my point of view, pleasant ones. US History majors do quite well: $57,000. General history, art history and criticism majors do almost as well at $50,000. Majors in “intercultural and international studies” do worse at $44,ooo; even Latin majors do better than that.

link
Some interesting reading, and a cool chart that I can't figure out how to bring over...

[thundley4]

Maybe I should have tried harder for Electrical Engineering when I was accepted to the U of I at Urbana-Champaign instead of joining the navy.