“Those lessons might seem obvious, but there’s evidence that many students aren’t learning them”
I would say thats true among college bound freshman I know. Few of them really seem to care about labor demand. I work in IT and I can tell you what happens when students dont choose those majors…we import them.
If there were 10% of the discussion about this list as there is about the US News college rankings, we would all be better off.
Amazing that in some majors 80% of grads end up in a job that does not require a degree. If you are going to choose one of those, you really need some talent and a plan.
However, note that petroleum engineering crashed hard.
This article is based on 2012-2013 numbers, and is from 2014.
I’d be curious to see how the economic recovery affected it.
In addition, a student who wants to major in drama is unlikely to choose engineering (or may try but not be successful in engineering, as “engineering brain” is very specific). So, the right question would be: what an a drama major do to make himself/herself more marketable?
@MYOS1634 “However, note that petroleum engineering crashed hard.
This article is based on 2012-2013 numbers, and is from 2014.
I’d be curious to see how the economic recovery affected it.
In addition, a student who wants to major in drama is unlikely to choose engineering (or may try but not be successful in engineering, as “engineering brain” is very specific). So, the right question would be: what an a drama major do to make himself/herself more marketable?”
I agree about the Petroleum engineer. I am not a fan of that volatile major.
For drama students I think it depends on the talent level and what else the student is good at. Maybe they can consider double major or minor in drama, if they are not a top talent.
Not saying everyone should be an engineer. That is difficult, and not for everyone. However, for a student in a low to middle income family (it does not matter if you are rich), it is a good idea to seriously consider choosing a major with lower underemployment, and higher salaries or minimally, to avoid the highest underemployment and lowest salary majors.
Petroleum engineering job and pay prospects track oil prices more closely than they do general economic conditions.
Or, for everyone, be aware of what major-specific job prospects are like for majors under consideration, and consider what one can do to prepare for seeking major-agnostic jobs.
The volatility of some majors like Petro Eng was discussed in the article.
My daughter is a competitive dancer, so many of her friends are planning to major in dance. The odds of making dance a viable career are so slim, I just can’t see sending my kid off to college to get a strictly arts degree. I would at minimum require a double major so they have something more tangible to fall back on. My daughter plans to major in statistics and financial mathematics, depending on the schools she gets into. That at least seems like she’d be able to get a decent job.
I think the article makes clear, as well, that the major needs to be put in proper context. Nursing makes more sense than biology for someone who wants to work in a health-related field and also plans to be employed on a career-path job immediately upon graduation. But for someone who sees their undergraduate education as an interim rather than terminal degree, biology may make more sense.
I do wish they’d fix the table at the bottom of the article, too. As someone who has often traded flexibility for income during the course of my career, I’m interested in the role that voluntary part-time employment plays in the lower average-earnings measures for some majors.
I get annoyed by twits who say “hey, accounting major, why don’t you study actuarial science!” when the skillset needed to do well in one is almost completely different from the skillset needed to do well in the other.
“Look, you don’t need to study science and engineering to make good money!” when actuaries are required to have more hard-core math chops than the majority of STEM majors.