What to study and where to study it. Those are the big questions for the college bound. Bankrate.com has just published its latest assessment of the financial attractiveness of 162 college majors. What were the top majors? A majority of the top 10 had the word “engineering” in the description. The list is topped by “naval architecture and marine engineering.” All were so-called STEM disciplines. Thanks to Richard K. Vedder in generating this post.
Bottom majors based on $$
A majority of the bottom ten majors had the word “arts,” culminating, in last place, “drama and theater arts.” Most were humanities or fine arts disciplines, such as music, linguistics and comparative literature.
Top majors based on $$
Concluding that “If you want to be successful in life, you need to major in a STEM discipline and avoid the classical liberal arts disciplines” could be a serious mistake. Political science and government majors ranked slightly above some STEM majors. Those would include mathematics, botany or plant science.
History majors ranked 81, about the median of all majors. Economics and accounting were rated above physics. Psychology was the subject with the second greatest numbers of majors. However it ranked 140th. The most majors? “Business management and administration,” ranked 67th. That places it below such mainstream arts and science disciplines as economics, history and political science.
The median earnings for top ranked majors tend to be in the $80,000 to $100,000 range. There are some majors where the median is under $40,000. That gap is larger than the average gap between the earnings of high school and college graduates.
Where you study matters more than what
Education matters. The type of education may matter more. Roughly equally as important as what students study is the question of where they study. According to the College Scorecard of the U.S. Department of Education, the average “salary after attending” is $89,700 at Harvard University. With that said at Central State University, an Ohio state school falls under one-third as much $26,100. Part of the reason is that nearly everyone attending Harvard graduates (97%), while at Central State only 23% graduate within six years of entering.
People respond to incentives. The numbers above help explain some trends in higher education today. The portion of students majoring in the fine arts and humanities generally declines as students become aware that those majoring in these areas are literally often starving artists. Meanwhile, engineering, despite its reputation as requiring lots of smarts and hard work, is prospering as a field.
Increasing awareness of the differential outcomes by types of schools has led to a flight to quality in higher education. Applications are soaring for the top ranked schools. Lower quality institutions are facing enrollment declines and even facing financial ruin.
Conclusion
“Money is not everything” in choosing a field of study. Finding satisfaction in your work is huge in finding satisfaction in one’s life. But higher education resources are scarce. Public subsidy of higher education are receiving close review using cost-benefit criteria. Consumers should become more aware of the differences in outcomes that occur when making their decisions. Remember in sorting college options the big decisions are what to study and where to study it.