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Your college major has a bigger effect on your income than where you go to college.
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<p>The</a> Most And Least Lucrative College Majors, In 2 Graphs : Planet Money : NPR</p>
<p>The usual suspects are there for both grad and undergrad degrees...</p>
<p>That they are … I was kind of surprised about the communication disorder bachelor degree, though. Speech therapists do quite well in our area, although I think it’s a 5-year program and part of the calculations are based on that.</p>
<p>Lumping math and computer science together bumps the math.</p>
<p>Football…a masters degree is required to be licensed and certified as a speech pathologist. With a bachelors degree, you can be an aide…but you cannot be a speech pathologist. That is likely why it is not a highly paid bachelors degree field. Most speech pathology programs are SIX years now…four undergrad and two masters level.</p>
<p>Math majors can have decent job prospects in finance type jobs, and may transition into computers as well.</p>
<p>Note “Health and Medical Preparatory Programs”. It is in the top list for all degree levels, but in the bottom list at the bachelor’s degree level. Meaning that basing your undergraduate on pre-health with no preparation for backup plans (commonly majoring in biology) and then not getting into the health professional school leads to dim job prospects at the bachelor’s degree level.</p>
<p>True, ucbalumnus. My math major kid is not interested in finance or computer science. :-)</p>
<p>[College</a> students choosing majors now have starting salaries at hand - San Jose Mercury News](<a href=“College students choosing majors now have starting salaries at hand – The Mercury News”>College students choosing majors now have starting salaries at hand – The Mercury News) is another article relating to the same study.</p>
<p>The list is very “engineering engineering engineering” but I wonder if that’s because some very high paying careers are not related to such specific majors?</p>
<p>Also…I wonder about the future of petroleum engineering vs., say, a type of engineering that would relate more to developing solar or wind or other types of renewable technologies?</p>
<p>Yes, some high paying careers like CEO are not major-specific. However, getting to these careers is very competitive where graduating from college may merely be the first of many competitive steps.</p>
<p>Petroleum engineering may be high paid because of the working conditions in the field, often in unpleasant locations. Imagine spending a lot of time on an offshore oil rig, in frozen places, in countries with political violence, or in countries with highly restrictive social and religious laws.</p>
<p>Oh Good, another study to tell us that dermatologists make more than nursery school teachers.</p>
<p>Petroleum engineers on an oil rig may be working 60-70 hours a week, with no overtime. Their hourly wage isn’t nearly as high as it might appear. And they have among the very worst working conditions.</p>
<p>A high school dropout waiter who doubleshifts at a high-end restaurant in a major city will make about the same.</p>
<p>The oil smell alone is terrible. I drove by Benicia couple times and could not stand it.</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.valero.com/ourbusiness/ourlocations/refineries/pages/benicia.aspx]Benicia[/url”>http://www.valero.com/ourbusiness/ourlocations/refineries/pages/benicia.aspx]Benicia[/url</a>]</p>
<p>Math majors can be eligible for some of the same hiring as computer science majors, hence the combining. Son’s first love is math but he added comp sci. He says he doesn’t use his math (but then he included grad courses as an undergrad) but then he likely forgets how the math influences his thinking processes. Changed companies recently- title switched from computer programmer to engineer. So much for designations given by colleges for different degrees. He got lucky that his interests pay a lot currently. It will be interesting to see what he is doing ten years from now- any grad school for this gifted kid???</p>
<p>“The oil smell alone is terrible. I drove by Benicia couple times and could not stand it.”</p>
<p>They die early of cancer.</p>
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<p>I would think that there is a synergy between the two fields. Those with a strong math background may be hired to develop quicker, more efficient trading or data-ming algorithms, while those without may typically become low-level code maintainers.</p>
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<p>Wrong. Petroleum engineers work back in the office in Dallas, Houston or wherever, not on the rig. They may work more than 40 hour weeks, but so do many other professionals. Most of the ones I know haven’t visited an active drill site in years. Their job risk is carpal tunnel syndrome from hours and hours at the desk.
The problem with choosing PE as a career is the boom and bust nature of the field. You might have graduated in 1984 or 1999 and have never held a job in your field.</p>
<p>Here’s the thing about engineering or at least this is what my DH has noticed at the companies he’s worked for. Not all engineers stay just engineers. They go back to school and get their MBA and move up the corporate ladder. When layoffs come along they usually keep the people with MBA’s that have an engineering degree.</p>
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Much of that depends on how many years the person has been active in the industry. Of the PetE students I know, almost all expect to work on site upon graduation (of course many look forward to such assignments). It’s only after a few years do they get to go to a cushy office job.</p>
<p>Where does Political science fall into all of this?</p>