Well, yeah. Plenty of students major in the liberal arts and aim for careers in business, law, medicine, etc. It’s no secret that it doesn’t matter whether you majored in chemical engineering or Islamic studies when it comes to law school admissions.
It’s arguably more helpful to consider salary info for those without advanced degrees. Georgetown’s “Economic Value of College Majors” report is a few years old but offers detailed salary information for each major. Unsurprisingly, engineering majors had the highest salaries among graduates with only bachelor’s degrees.
Majors in education, the arts, and social work had the lowest salaries.
The Georgetown report found that mid-career salaries of humanities and social science majors (with the notable exception of econ) were lower than for many STEM majors. Examples:
- Art History - $48,871
- Psychology - $48,686
- Anthropology - $48,679
- Theology - $42,736
- Civil Engineering - $96,156
- Mechanical Engineering - $86,883
- Computer Science - $86,553
- Physics - $81,143
- Math - $72,501
- Biochemistry - $97,358
- Geology - $98,394