Most profitable majors out of this life - Any help would be appreciated

College Majors Business Major
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<p>I’m currently a high school graduate waiting to begin my major at RIT this fall. There hasn’t been a career field that I’ve wanted to pursue, everything seems to me as just work and the intent of it all is to get a paycheck to be able to live. My desire is to pick a specific business related degree [was accepted to the business school part – split second decision] that will generate the most income in the future.</p>

<p>Choices include: Accounting, Finance, International Business, Management (Commonly referred to as Business Administration), Management Information Systems, Marketing, New Media Marketing, and Videos.
By “generating the most income”, I’m learning towards the near 100K mark (But hey, I will also take more!). My desire isn’t to be driven by greed, rather to fulfil my two desires that I live for. To provide a future for my other half and I, and to make my parents proud. Regardless of the field I choose, I will put 200% effort into it. Here are my views on some of these degrees:</p>

<p>Management – Most overly picked business degree, most people probably have the intent of being put in charge of a large business right after college. To say the least, they are disappointed in the end. You can’t really become head of a business unless you climb the corporate ladder and it seems most entry-level business jobs look for Finance degrees in that regards.</p>

<p>International Business – I don’t see much need for this field in small businesses, and the likelihood of getting put into a somewhat large business out of college, or at least with some experience, is rare.</p>

<p>Management Information System - The major I chose to pursue. I’ve been a techy guy for most of my life. I’ve spent my time messing around with computer-related items, ran several businesses online that related to computer/server services, and I’ve been entrusted with role of the student IT assistant during my high school career. IT itself is not a profitable career, but a MIS degree is the managerial side of things which does bring the nice paycheck. Yet, after “Googling” people with a MIS degree, it seems they are still doing IT related things. They are getting their IT certifications, they started off working at support help desks, and a lot of them are simply IT guys. If I wanted to become an IT guy, I would have chosen the IT degree in the College of Computing, but I chose MIS in the College of Business yet I saw that MIS majors are going for IT jobs (this was based on 7 people I saw ranting on IT forums). I would love to be an information systems manager, and out of all the business degrees, this interests me the most, yet is this the best degree for it (and for my desire to receive that nice paycheck)?</p>

<p>Finance and Accounting (Not Combined) – I’ve seen many people argue Finance is the best degree to choose as it’s harder than Accounting. Some say it’s the other way around. To say the least, entry-level jobs love Finance majors.</p>

<p>Marketing/Videos – No.</p>

<p>Basically, my question is: Which degree will bring the most income? I will be pursuing one of them this fall for four years and will do an accelerated MBA program during my 5th year. So take in consideration that I will most likely have a MBA in one of those concentrations. Also, RIT has mandatory co-op so I will be required to work for a company in the field of my major. So I need to make sure I pick the right degree, so I can make a good impression on a company. </p>

<p>If you can offer even the slightest help, even if it doesn’t answer the whole question, please post anything you have.</p>

<p>Thank you!</p>

<p>-Kevin (Apologies for any grammatical mistakes or awkward sentences – I wrote this late at night while under medication)</p>

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<p>Accounting. If you can become a high level accountant for a business or work for one of the Big 4, you’re golden. And finance is not better than accounting, accounting majors can get jobs that finance majors can but not vice-versa.
Also, career sites like wois.org are your best friend. It gives you descriptions of jobs, salaries by county, job outlook by county, day-to-day jobs, skills you need, type of people that would like that job, percentage of people in that field with what level of degree, etc. Basically everything.</p>

<p>Oh, and I’ve read that a majority of people who don’t have any real business experience (so working 5 years minimum) won’t get accepted into a respectable MBA program. Also, many employers will foot the bill for MBAs. Keep this in mind.</p>

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<p>It seems sort of sad to hear all this. I have a friend that couldn’t find any work so he moved to South Dakota to work as a driver in the shale oil industry there. He’s been at it 6 months, still a newbie, and is in track to make $80k his first year and he’s told he’ll get more work and pay next year topping $100K.</p>

<p>No degree required. No school debts to pay.</p>

<p>After a time, money is not enough. You are basically saying that you are willing to be miserable if it pays a lot of money. After 20 years of being miserable, will you get sick of it but feel trapped? Will your parents be happy and proud to see you so miserable? Does your other half mind if you are doing work that makes you miserable when she had to be the one to live with you?</p>

<p>I say take off a year and drive across the country. Do odd jobs along the way for money and meet interesting people. Have a year of fun before you consign yourself to a lifetime of misery.</p>

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<p>@206377 I’ll check out accounting, thanks. I looked into that degree specifically in the past and it just seems that has the lowest salary out of them all, in regards to the median range. It appeared to me it’s one of those betting degrees, that if you don’t quite have the connections and can get into one of the big ones, you’re done. RIT will probably be my be the university of my BS and MBA, unless I should transfer out in two years to a different school?</p>

<p>@Madaboutx It does seem a tad sad. I did once have a career field that interested me, and that was becoming a pilot for an airline. Two years ago, there was a 20% job projection so life seemed quite well as I was about to pursue the career of my dreams, but this year the BLS handbook updated their statistics to a -1% decrease in job outlook, and later that week I saw an airline furlough 800 of its pilots. I was enrolled into Embry-Riddle early this year, but I bailed out as soon as I saw and I was lucky enough for RIT to still take me for business. I’ll accept my misery, put on a fake smile like I’ve been doing for most of my life, and put 200% in whichever job I choose. It really does seem sad, but I do enjoy the simple life. I love working for the sake of working, but I never found joy in it (but maybe in business I might).</p>

<p>EDIT: Also, I’m only paying $3K/year after scholarships and aid, so I don’t think I should take a year off and bail out.</p>

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<p>@kabreu7‌ - You are letting forces govern you like money and statistics which will compound your misery tremendously. </p>

<ol>
<li><p>The BLS stats are always so far off from being correct that it’s astounding people who pose as experts could be so wrong. Nursing was the hottest field to get into according to their stats for a long time but nurses are being laid off in many parts of the country except for states like Texas where healthcare is booming. People who follow their stats and projections screw up supply and demand. People flood into certain careers creating excess and flee away from other fields creating demand so the field that is expected to grow ends up going bust and the one going bust ends up booming.</p></li>
<li><p>Corruption and bad federal policy make any long term projections of job outlook and income a joke. Ever heard of the dot com bubble bust? How about the real estate and financial bubble busting? In 1999, software engineers and computer scientists were being laid off from their jobs. In 2008-09, finance people were losing their jobs in massive numbers. Things have come back quite nicely for those folks but nobody wanted to enter those fields at that time. It looked like it was over. These were the result of corrupt business people and politicians. Obamacare may end up severely hurting the healthcare industry. A policy decision has changed the jobs outlook for millions of people and the outcome is uncertain and scary.</p></li>
<li><p>Innovation can change anything and everything. Do you remember life before the smartphone? Before apps ever existed? Before social media ever existed? Before drone technology or online banking or online bookstores? You can’t predict what great, disruptive technology will come along. Something that the BLS says is so great today may not exist in 5 years. Those guys never say sorry when they screw up.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>I can only say good luck to you. You may or may not find a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow you are chasing. Know that a college degree is a piece of paper, not a skill. You will get paid what you are worth in proportion to what you produce. Life can be hard and doing something you don’t like day and day out, year after year after year will make it much harder. At the same time though, a lot of stumble into something we enjoy. It wasn’t part of a grand plan but we are glad we found it. Stop looking at BLS stats. They suck. Good luck to you.</p>

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<p>Out of all of those the highest potential would probably be finance and then going to work as an investment banker for a Big 4 but they have long hours year-round and their salary divided by hours worked isnt far worse than other fields. Additionally, on top of this, its a very competitive job market and unless you’re the top percent of your class at RIT, you “probably” wont even get an interview. Furthermore, until you make a name for yourself, you can forget about living a normal life with your family. There are always exceptions but I wouldnt bet on it.</p>

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<p>Perhaps this information from RIT Career Services would help you since money is your driving concern. It lists co-op salaries as well as graduate salaries. <a href=“http://www.rit.edu/emcs/oce/students/salary”>http://www.rit.edu/emcs/oce/students/salary&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Following law or IB – <em>if</em> you work hard and get the right breaks – can land you a $125,000+ salary right out of school. But you’re probably going to work 80ish hours per week, so enjoying the fruits of your labor will be difficult.</p>

<p>I have a BA in Journalism and an MBA primarily because I didn’t know what I wanted to become. </p>

<p>I use both degrees every day as an ops analyst. It more than pays the bills.</p>

<p>The crucible here is: don’t choose a field based on career prospects; choose a field based on <em>what you like</em>.</p>

<p>At the very worst – let’s say you choose Art History – you can continue on to MA and/or PhD and become a professor.</p>

<p>Or if you want to teach in a more expeditious fashion, you can always get an Education major and tie it to the minor you love.</p>

<p>Bar none, do what you love.</p>

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<p>Well law has the the best chance at the highest starting salary because they typically make $160,000 starting off at big law. Granted this would mean he “must” get a high LSAT score and GPA to go to a t14 law school which are basically the only schools big law will even accept interviews for. And you can forget living a life because you will work 80-120 hours a week and be on call. They call, you come, no exceptions. If you dont believe me, go read the “big law horror” sticky thread in the law school forum. </p>

<p>Investment banking is pretty similar though they are slightly less prestige based and from what i’ve read their hours are long but more manageable compared to lawyers.</p>

<p>As for everyone saying you should do what you love rather than just a high paycheck. I think this is very true because when you love something, its far easier to move-up with which will end up with you making more money. There’s a wealthy version of every major and im willing to bet they were driven by loving what they do.</p>

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<p>If you look up jobs in the fitness industry, they always record a somewhat low income. But I know a guy that owns a fitness studio that far exceeds those low numbers and another that owns 4 gyms that is wealthy. These are like @Noteworthy‌ says, wealthy versions of low to middle paying jobs. Everything industry has this.</p>

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<p>Loving this question, in my opinion you would be best served in accounting or finance. the trick is it does not really matter what major you have if you want to be a millionaire, the trick is you have to invest your money from your job in savings, watch it grow and help build your credit with the bank. then once you have about 100,000 in this account you can draw interest on it and play the stock market. </p>

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<p>Who’s paying anybody interest anymore these days? Better get good at investing early.</p>