The Most And Least Lucrative College Majors

Parents Forum
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<p>You have a reference? The spot price of petroleum being high is going to continue to drive more exploration in more difficult conditions- which means more engineering. </p>

<p>Economic growth in AP, and Japan switching to Natural Gas, is likely to drive growth for decades. </p>

<p>The market looks pretty good to me.</p>

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<p>NPR seems to leave out almost all the interesting information. The data is derived from the GSS in the US Census and is based on asking people what their degree was in. The data represents a median value for people who are employed full time, although not necessarily in the field they graduated in. </p>

<p>Since this is census data I’d imagine that the reported graduates could be of any age. </p>

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<a href=“http://www9.georgetown.edu/grad/gppi/hpi/cew/pdfs/majorsmethodology.pdf[/url]”>http://www9.georgetown.edu/grad/gppi/hpi/cew/pdfs/majorsmethodology.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>I’m not great with links, but will see if this works:
[A</a> warning to petroleum engineering students | Cost of College](<a href=“http://costofcollege.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/2013/02/19/a-warning-to-petroleum-engineering-students/]A”>A warning to petroleum engineering students | Cost of College)
“In the wake of a one-year jump of 55% in the number of U.S. petroleum engineering freshman students, it was reported that Texas A&M sent a letter to incoming students advising them to be realistic about future job growth.” </p>

<p>That letter circulated back in February 2013. Lots of programs are now placing caps on the students allowed into the major because of a problem with oversupply rather than a reduction in demand. The other issue is that many (if not most) of the jobs in the oil and gas industry can be filled by engineers from a variety of backgrounds (mechanical, electrical) and the industry-specific stuff they need to know is taught on the job. PEs therefore have a lot of competition for those oil and gas jobs even if the price of oil stays high. If the price of oil declines, then the problem will be exacerbated. I think it’s a great career (my S loves his job), but it is by no means easy to get placed these days.</p>

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<p>One way of interpreting that is that the existing industry is trying to protect their pricing power by limiting the number of new entrants. From the Georgetown stats, almost no one seems to bothers to get a grad degree in Petroleum Engineering so the barrier to entry is pretty low. </p>

<p>Its not like lawyers where at least they can try to limit entrants through an advanced degree and bar exams.</p>