Look at all the richest people in America, none of them got there from doing science and math, they started or worked with businesses, they go where the money is.
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The richest people in America are science and math related. I would say Bill Gates is a computer science/engineering guy. The people because rich found a market opportunity. Nowadays, finding these market opportunities is NOT easy at all. If you had a solid and more diverse engineering background, you would be better off.
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If you just want to make 100k or whatever eventually, and you consider that a high salary, you dont even have to go to college, you could just get a real estate license or go to trade school.
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That is true. People have different goals. Some people want to make at least 100k by the time they're 45. Others want to make over 100k the year after they graduate.
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Pharmacists can also make 100k+ by age 24 or so (6 years after high school).
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The main advantage of pharmacists is that they will never go into debt. If a pharmacist decided to get an MBA, JD, or engineering degree, they could go to school during the year and work part time. They could easily make 60k a year doing that. That would cover tuition and living expenses. Thus, they don't have to take a loan and get hit on whatever interest comes along with that.</p>
<p>The Walton family inherited their wealth. They had a rich and very successful relative and they were given a very good opportunity/chance to get into the position they are in now.</p>
Bill Gates is only one of many billionaires in America. </p>
<p>For example, is Buffett math/science/engineering?
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<p>Making $$$ is about maximizing your opportunities. If you have a lot of opportunities, you will be able to select the path that fits you the best to reach your goal.</p>
<p>If you major in economics/finance, your route to big $$$ is ibanking. If you major in engineering, you can still do ibanking as well as MANY other career paths.</p>
<p>When everyone has their MBAs, the econ/finance undergrad major is not looked at anymore. But someone with an engineering + MBA has a lot more alternatives than someone with a business undegrad degree + MBA.</p>
<p>And how did that realtive amass that wealth? It certainly wasn't from engineering.</p>
<p>I'm not saying that you can't become wealthy as an engineering major, but I highly disagree with your comment that the richest people in the US are all engineering/science related. While I agree that having a diverse background in beneficial, it certainly does not have to include science and engineering.</p>
<p>"The richest people in America are science and math related"</p>
<p>if u look at the forbes list of the richest ppl, most either inherited or started thier own hedge fund - which is obvioulsy finance. most of the big guys did like economics back in the day, worked at an investment bank, and went on to start thier hedge fund. now adays the most probable route for that would be a math/computer science/fizix degree, but they have to come from a good skool. a finance degree will land u in ibank, but ur not gonna be on forbes list of the richest ppl. i'd say engineering with an mba is better than econonics, but to land in an ibank u dont really need either of those.</p>
<p>I think most people need to be concerned with building the foundations. That seems like the focus on this site. No one can tell you HOW to get onto the Forbes Top $ list. But we can tell you what you might need to give yourself a chance to get onto that list. It seems that the most probably route is engineering undergrad unless you go to a Ivy or top 10 school and major in business.</p>
<p>Don't bring up specific examples of people who did not meet those criteria and became rich. That's just one example. We're talking about statistics, not individuals cases.</p>
<p>Classes based more on impressions than monetary values. I would say, based on my impression, that upper middle class is generally defined as 80 thousand-300k/yr or so. Middle class would be $40-80 thousand/year, lower middle class 20-40, lower than 20, you are dirt poor. A high school kid can pretty much come close to that. Upper class you start talking sbout dollars in terms of millions.</p>
<p>corporate lawyers do make good money, but i heard that many students fresh out of law school with a finance/economics background switch into investment banking because they realize that their investment banking counterparts are working the same hours as they are but a ton of more money, with potential to earn 100% bonus on base salary.</p>
<p>Bill Gates is a businessman, not a programmer, he made his money by making smart business decisions and starting his own business.</p>
<p>There are over 7.5 million millionaires in America. I'm sure theres a lot of people making 100k.</p>
<p>I hardly think that making 100k would qualify you as upper class, in most of the upper class neighborhoods in the upper class cities in this country, 100k a year would barely pay the rent.</p>
<p>Yes, and if Bill Gates was never a programmer how would he have come upon his fortune? Would magically have appeared because he was a "businessman"?</p>
<p>If he was interested in business/management, why isn't he a CEO? He has a passion for the science that goes into programming rather than the profits of it.</p>
<p>You're missing the point. Gates didn't make money on programming. He made money on being a business genius. It doesn't matter if you program the most stable and user-friendly OS in the world if you can't manage to market it.</p>
<p>Look at a lot of the many variations of Linux, and the public's lukewarm reception. A lot of that has to do with marketing (or lack thereof.)</p>
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If he was interested in business/management, why isn't he a CEO?
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<p>He was. He just isn't now. </p>
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He has a passion for the science that goes into programming rather than the profits of it.
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<p>Sure he does. But he doesn't seem to mind being the richest man in the world, either.</p>
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The richest people in America are science and math related.
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<p>I wanted to go over this again, by the way, and see how well it holds up under scrutiny. So, I did a quick scan of the top-25 richest people in America. Unsurprisingly, many of the spots are not occupied by techies or mathies.</p>
<p>Buffet (arguably), the Waltons (five of the richest Americans), Sheldon Adelson, Abigail Johnson (she studied art history, worth $12 bil), Barbara Cox Anthony (owner of several media outlets), Mars family (candy, not math or tech), Kirk Kerkorian, Sumner Redstone, Philip Knight, Carl Icahn.</p>
<p>Now, any one of those people uses math in their work. Few of them hold MBAs, and fewer still have anything remotely "math or science" as their studies in college.</p>
<p>Sorry, but your arguments just don't hold up under close scrutiny.</p>
<p>They don't hold up under your scrutiny because your definition of majors and outcomes is black and white.</p>
<p>First, you have to remove all those individuals from the list who have INHERITED their money. Inheritance does not prove anything, nor is it applicable to individuals in this forum. That removes the Waltons immediately.</p>
<p>Second, although it is true that not more than 50% of the people on that Top 25 list are engineering majors, but which major has yielded the most billionaires? Any sucessful investor is probably capable in mathematics. The tech companies that produced MANY billionaires were all probably engineers at some point.</p>