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Thread: 30 Best Paying College Majors: 2014

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    Default 30 Best Paying College Majors: 2014

    30. Mathematics
    Starting Salary: $49,400
    Mid-Career Salary: $88,800 (22nd, tie)
    29. Information Technology
    Starting Salary: $49,900
    Mid-Career Salary: $84,100 (30th, tie)


    28. Economics
    Starting Salary: $50,100
    Mid-Career Salary: $96,700 (15th)
    27. Occupational Health and Safety
    Starting Salary: $50,500
    Mid-Career Salary: $80,300 (40th)

    26 (tie). Computer Information Systems
    Starting Salary: $50,800
    Mid-Career Salary: $87,400 (25th)
    26 (tie). Industrial Technology
    Salary: $50,800
    Mid-Career Salary: $81,500 (37th)
    24. Construction Management
    Starting Salary: $51,500
    Mid-Career Salary: $88,800 (22nd, tie)
    23. Information Systems
    Starting Salary: $51,900
    Mid-Career Salary: $87,200 (26th)


    22. Statistics
    Starting Salary: $52,500
    Mid-Career Salary: $98,900 (13th)
    21 (tie). Applied Mathematics
    Starting Salary: $52,800
    Mid-Career Salary: $96,200 (16th)


    21 (tie). Supply Chain Management
    Starting Salary: $52,800
    Mid-Career Salary: $83,700 (34th , tie)
    19. Physics
    Starting Salary: $53,100
    Mid-Career Salary: $101,100 (9th)


    18. Management Information Systems
    Starting Salary: $53,800
    Mid-Career Salary: $92,200 (18th)
    17. Mechanical Engineering Technology
    Starting Salary: $54,100
    Mid-Career Salary: $84,000 (32nd, tie)

    16. Civil Engineering
    Starting Salary: $54,300
    Mid-Career Salary: $91,100 (20th)
    15. Nursing
    Starting Salary: $55,400
    Mid-Career Salary: $71,100 (57th)

    14. Electrical Engineering Technology
    Starting Salary: $57,900
    Mid-Career Salary: $87,600 (24th)
    13. Actuarial Mathematics
    Starting Salary: $58,700
    Mid-Career Salary: $120,000 (2th)


    12. Biomedical Engineering
    Starting Salary: $59,000
    Mid-Career Salary: $91,700 (19th)
    11. Computer Science
    Starting Salary: $59,800
    Mid-Career Salary: $102,000 (8th)

    10. Software Engineering
    Starting Salary: $60,500
    Mid-Career Salary: $99,300 (12th)
    9. Mechanical Engineering
    Starting Salary: $60,900
    Mid-Career Salary: $99,700 (10th)

    8. Industrial Engineering
    Starting Salary: $61,100
    Mid-Career Salary: $94,400 (17th)
    7. Materials Science & Engineering
    Starting Salary: $62,700
    Mid-Career Salary: $99,500 (11th)

    6. Aerospace Engineering
    Starting Salary: $62,800
    Mid-Career Salary: $109,000 (5th)
    5. Electrical Engineering
    Starting Salary: $64,300
    Mid-Career Salary: $106,000 (6th, tie)

    4. Computer Engineering
    Starting Salary: $65,300
    Mid-Career Salary: $106,000 (6th, tie)
    3. Nuclear Engineering
    Starting Salary: $67,600
    Mid-Career Salary: $117,000 (3rd)

    2. Chemical Engineering
    Starting Salary: $68,200
    Mid-Career Salary: $115,000 (4th)
    1. Petroleum Engineering
    Starting Salary: $103,000
    Mid-Career Salary: $160,000 (1st)

    http://www.thinkadvisor.com/2014/05/...014?page_all=1
    “What a caterpillar calls the end of the world we call a butterfly.” - ECKHART TOLLE

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    Default Re: 30 Best Paying College Majors: 2014

    It's good to know averages, but one shouldn't be deluded to assume those averages are easily attainable. It's like saying the average stripper makes $xxx per shift. There will be wide variations between the beautiful vs. the fugly ones that really have no business in taking their clothes off for profit.

    Another thing ... those starting salaries assume you get into top companies, i.e. large, publicly traded, or at least medium-sized. It's extremely competitive just to get into a very good entry level job. Then once you get in, you have to work your ass off and compete against other very intelligent professional peers to stay in your position and advance. Sometimes you don't just compete against local peers when the higher ups are looking at labor cost differentials between say computer science degrees in US vs. those in India, China, etc. You can bet that executives are thinking about "mid-career salary" differentials between local and foreign labor.

    IBM now employs more workers in India than US. "The average IBM pay in India is $17,000, compared with $100,000 for a senior IT specialist in the US."
    http://nypost.com/2013/10/05/ibm-now...india-than-us/
    Last edited by 1st_samurai; 06-25-2014 at 12:01 AM.

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    Default Re: 30 Best Paying College Majors: 2014

    I tell my friends going through college still that if I could go back, I would do a STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) major and pursue my creative endeavors on my own. If you have talent and drive in a creative art, there is little that a degree can teach you that you can't teach yourself, or learn by doing a minor. I studied creative writing in a very good program, but I imagine that I only had two "oh, didn't know that!" moments throughout my undergraduate career. If I don't end up having any success in writing, I'm sure I'll go back to school for something more technical.

    A few downsides to consider to STEM jobs and engineering in particular, I think, would be:
    -these majors often take longer to complete (most of my friends took five years instead of four, but that's true for non-engineers too)
    -the tuition is usually higher for these courses (though I imagine the long-term income difference is worth it in many cases)
    -the word has been out on engineers' bright futures for a while, and so many students enroll in the degree plans, making educational opportunities and jobs more competitive. My friend works for a very good oil and gas firm and was in charge of interviewing candidates for a new entry-level position. He told me about two exceptional candidates, one of which had actually spent the summer interning with them. Neither of them got the position. He said the candidates were good, but the company had the ability to be VERY choosy, and so they were confident they'd find better. Additionally, this friend is about to move to another country with hardly a month's notice for his position. To succeed at the level he desires, he doesn't have another option, from what I gather. My other friends have had to relocate to other states or stick with lower paying positions. It's good money, but it's not easy by any means.

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    Default Re: 30 Best Paying College Majors: 2014

    Quote Originally Posted by tuesdaymarie View Post
    -these majors often take longer to complete (most of my friends took five years instead of four, but that's true for non-engineers too)
    -the tuition is usually higher for these courses (though I imagine the long-term income difference is worth it in many cases)
    -the word has been out on engineers' bright futures for a while, and so many students enroll in the degree plans, making educational opportunities and jobs more competitive. My friend works for a very good oil and gas firm and was in charge of interviewing candidates for a new entry-level position. He told me about two exceptional candidates, one of which had actually spent the summer interning with them. Neither of them got the position. He said the candidates were good, but the company had the ability to be VERY choosy, and so they were confident they'd find better. Additionally, this friend is about to move to another country with hardly a month's notice for his position. To succeed at the level he desires, he doesn't have another option, from what I gather. My other friends have had to relocate to other states or stick with lower paying positions. It's good money, but it's not easy by any means.
    This so much. I am living proof of this right now. I got my degree, but I've had to relocate. It was either relocate to an undesirable area with almost no competition and easier time getting jobs with my degree, or stay back home and work in low paying shit jobs with minimal career advancement. They just have to put up with it for a year or two, and then go back home.

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    Default Re: 30 Best Paying College Majors: 2014

    A number of these are the same job but with differences in title. Quite a few are typical paths from the same degree. There is also a lot of crossover. For example it wouldn't be weird for someone to get a job as either a computer engineer or software engineer (and the other names for those two on the list) with a Math, Electrical Engineering or Comouter Science degree.

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    Default Re: 30 Best Paying College Majors: 2014

    Quote Originally Posted by tuesdaymarie View Post
    I tell my friends going through college still that if I could go back, I would do a STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) major and pursue my creative endeavors on my own. If you have talent and drive in a creative art, there is little that a degree can teach you that you can't teach yourself, or learn by doing a minor.
    Double-majoring in a STEM + writing can be good.

    http://chrisyeh.blogspot.com/
    The College Major Dilemma
    A new study by Yale economists shows in numbers what we've always intuitively known: "Practical" majors like Finance, Engineering, and Nursing have a huge wage advantage over "impractical" ones like Art History, Drama, and Philosophy:
    http://nyti.ms/1qAaQvo

    During a recession, a Finance major, for example, earns 32% more than the average college graduate one year after graduation. A Religion and Philosophy major earns 55% less than the average graduate (which means the consolation of philosophy comes in handy). In concrete terms, if the average college grad earns $45,000/year after college, the average Finance major would be making just under $60K, while the average Religion and Philosophy major would be making a smidge above $20K. For reference, the median American makes $27,000 per year. So your college major can represent the difference between being poor, and making over double that of the average American--and that's just after one year.

    Yet I feel uneasy simply advising students to ditch their majors and start learning to code.

    For one thing, not everyone is suited for every major. Back at Stanford, we actually had three physics tracks--advanced (for masochists), standard (for engineers--bear in mind that this was still pretty hard...the median on one of the Physics 53 midterms I tool was 17 out of 100. That was the only time in my college career that I got a 70%, yet ended up with an A+), and "Physics for Poets."

    I also remember taking Chemistry (the feeder class for being pre-med) and watching as vast numbers of former valedictorians abandoned their hopes of being a doctor after washing out.

    For another thing, simply considering earning power doesn't properly measure contributions to society. Bankers and lawyers make money, but do they make a difference? Meanwhile, Education and Social Work majors help people directly.

    In the end, I feel like the proper resolution to the college major dilemma is to make sure that students are able to make informed choices. Simply knowing that majoring in Computer Science is likely to lead to a good career is useful (and obvious), but knowing the exact magnitude of the expected gains or losses from possible majors allows better decision-making.

    If Jason or Marissa really wanted to major in Philosophy and Religion, I'd support their decision...and clear out a basement apartment for them to stay in after graduating.

    My own solution to this dilemma--in the absence of real statistics--was to hedge. I majored in both Engineering (Product Design) and Creative Writing. This was a conscious strategy, one which my Creative Writing advisor, the great John L'Heureux agreed with. "I'm glad that at least one of my students will actually be able to get a job," he told me. "Just remember to come back and endow a professorship in our department someday."

    The irony, of course, is that having a Creative Writing degree AND an Engineering degree has been great for my career. My first boss told me that my writing skills were one of the key reasons D. E. Shaw hired me (and disgorged quadruple the usual signing bonus for a non-CS major), and I've been the chief author of every organization I've been a part of ever since.

    (Speaking of which, don't forget to pre-order my upcoming book, The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age. Publisher's Weekly writes, "The specifics on helping employees network and aligning employee and company goals and values will help all employers create an engaged and self-actualized workforce.")

    What makes this strategy work is the scarcity of people who are trained as both engineers and writers. Rather than competing with a sea of English majors, my Creative Writing degree helped me stand out from all the other Engineering majors.

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    Default Re: 30 Best Paying College Majors: 2014

    Quote Originally Posted by tuesdaymarie View Post
    I tell my friends going through college still that if I could go back, I would do a STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) major and pursue my creative endeavors on my own. If you have talent and drive in a creative art, there is little that a degree can teach you that you can't teach yourself, or learn by doing a minor. I studied creative writing in a very good program, but I imagine that I only had two "oh, didn't know that!" moments throughout my undergraduate career. If I don't end up having any success in writing, I'm sure I'll go back to school for something more technical.
    Double-majoring in a STEM + writing can be better.

    From Adventures in Capitalism blog.
    The College Major Dilemma
    A new study by Yale economists shows in numbers what we've always intuitively known: "Practical" majors like Finance, Engineering, and Nursing have a huge wage advantage over "impractical" ones like Art History, Drama, and Philosophy:
    http://nyti.ms/1qAaQvo

    During a recession, a Finance major, for example, earns 32% more than the average college graduate one year after graduation. A Religion and Philosophy major earns 55% less than the average graduate (which means the consolation of philosophy comes in handy). In concrete terms, if the average college grad earns $45,000/year after college, the average Finance major would be making just under $60K, while the average Religion and Philosophy major would be making a smidge above $20K. For reference, the median American makes $27,000 per year. So your college major can represent the difference between being poor, and making over double that of the average American--and that's just after one year.

    Yet I feel uneasy simply advising students to ditch their majors and start learning to code.

    For one thing, not everyone is suited for every major. Back at Stanford, we actually had three physics tracks--advanced (for masochists), standard (for engineers--bear in mind that this was still pretty hard...the median on one of the Physics 53 midterms I tool was 17 out of 100. That was the only time in my college career that I got a 70%, yet ended up with an A+), and "Physics for Poets."

    I also remember taking Chemistry (the feeder class for being pre-med) and watching as vast numbers of former valedictorians abandoned their hopes of being a doctor after washing out.

    For another thing, simply considering earning power doesn't properly measure contributions to society. Bankers and lawyers make money, but do they make a difference? Meanwhile, Education and Social Work majors help people directly.

    In the end, I feel like the proper resolution to the college major dilemma is to make sure that students are able to make informed choices. Simply knowing that majoring in Computer Science is likely to lead to a good career is useful (and obvious), but knowing the exact magnitude of the expected gains or losses from possible majors allows better decision-making.

    If Jason or Marissa really wanted to major in Philosophy and Religion, I'd support their decision...and clear out a basement apartment for them to stay in after graduating.

    My own solution to this dilemma--in the absence of real statistics--was to hedge. I majored in both Engineering (Product Design) and Creative Writing. This was a conscious strategy, one which my Creative Writing advisor, the great John L'Heureux agreed with. "I'm glad that at least one of my students will actually be able to get a job," he told me. "Just remember to come back and endow a professorship in our department someday."

    The irony, of course, is that having a Creative Writing degree AND an Engineering degree has been great for my career. My first boss told me that my writing skills were one of the key reasons D. E. Shaw hired me (and disgorged quadruple the usual signing bonus for a non-CS major), and I've been the chief author of every organization I've been a part of ever since.

    (Speaking of which, don't forget to pre-order my upcoming book, The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age. Publisher's Weekly writes, "The specifics on helping employees network and aligning employee and company goals and values will help all employers create an engaged and self-actualized workforce.")

    What makes this strategy work is the scarcity of people who are trained as both engineers and writers. Rather than competing with a sea of English majors, my Creative Writing degree helped me stand out from all the other Engineering majors.

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    Default Re: 30 Best Paying College Majors: 2014

    Quote Originally Posted by 1st_samurai View Post
    The irony, of course, is that having a Creative Writing degree AND an Engineering degree has been great for my career. My first boss told me that my writing skills were one of the key reasons D. E. Shaw hired me (and disgorged quadruple the usual signing bonus for a non-CS major), and I've been the chief author of every organization I've been a part of ever since.
    I've heard the same thing and that engineering majors who also have good writing skills are highly sought after.

    I used to be an engineering major and I've found many of my peers were foreign born with a questionable handling of the English language (that or just shut ins who can't write to save their lives). I made a killing doing essay stuff from those guys. Engineering combined with writing skills is indeed an untapped market.

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    Default Re: 30 Best Paying College Majors: 2014

    Another thing ... those starting salaries assume you get into top companies, i.e. large, publicly traded, or at least medium-sized. It's extremely competitive just to get into a very good entry level job. Then once you get in, you have to work your ass off and compete against other very intelligent professional peers to stay in your position and advance. Sometimes you don't just compete against local peers when the higher ups are looking at labor cost differentials between say computer science degrees in US vs. those in India, China, etc. You can bet that executives are thinking about "mid-career salary" differentials between local and foreign labor.

    If you check the graphic I posted yesterday in the '820 US Occupations' thread further down this forum, you'll find the median US pay rate, as well as 25th, 50th, 75th and 90th percentile pay rates, for these 30 jobs along with many others.

    However, you are entirely correct that these US pay statistics do NOT indicate the rate of growth in these various US jobs ( or lack thereof ), do not indicate where in the USA these various US jobs may ( or may not ) be located, do not indicate the full 'expectations' of employers offering these jobs, etc.

    Also, not that it matters, but this top 30 majors list noteworthily leaves off jobs in medicine, finance, etc. which also appear to offer equal or higher pay rates. This may be the result of the top 30 list confining their listings to bachelor's degree grads only.

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    Default Re: 30 Best Paying College Majors: 2014

    Quote Originally Posted by 1st_samurai View Post
    ...Simply knowing that majoring in Computer Science is likely to lead to a good career is useful (and obvious), but knowing the exact magnitude of the expected gains or losses from possible majors allows better decision-making.
    Btw Computer Science is the way I want to go, but what does he mean by "knowing the exact magnitude of the expected gains or losses"?
    Last edited by Elektra Luxx; 06-25-2014 at 08:14 PM.

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    Default Re: 30 Best Paying College Majors: 2014

    Which one of you want to date David Tepper?
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-28-years.html
    Last edited by 1st_samurai; 06-25-2014 at 08:58 AM.

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    Default Re: 30 Best Paying College Majors: 2014

    Quote Originally Posted by Melonie View Post
    t this top 30 majors list noteworthily leaves off jobs in medicine, finance, etc. which also appear to offer equal or higher pay rates.
    The best paying jobs are in the upper echelons of finance. Every thing else pales in comparison ... CEO pays are rounding errors. Of course, to get in private equity, bulge bracket investment bank, or a top 50 hedge fund is intensely competitive. You have to have the high GPA, SAT scores, and extracurriculars just to get into a target school with the right major(s). Then you have to match your academic wits against other people in your class who were all high achieving scholars in high school to get a good GPA. When interviewing for the summer internship, there are very few slots at the top firms. A place like Blackstone may only have 2 slots for an entire graduating class from Harvard Business School. I know a high school acquaintance who wanted to get into private equity but couldn't make it despite getting a full-ride to USC, 10 years of consulting experience at a top 3 firm plus graduation from Harvard Business School. Now he's Vice President at a large financial institution. Not surprisingly, married with one child.
    Last edited by 1st_samurai; 06-25-2014 at 08:41 AM.

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    Default Re: 30 Best Paying College Majors: 2014

    what do mean by "knowing the exact magnitude of the expected gains or losses
    Not wanting to put words into anyone else's mouth ... but ...

    Obtaining a college degree involves additional costs. Some of those costs are 'direct' and obvious, i.e. tuition payments. However, some of those costs are 'indirect' and not so obvious. For example, attending college while working at a part-time vanilla job 10 hours per week, versus not attending college but working 40+ full time hours at a higher paying job, involves a significant difference in net paychecks. The negative difference is referred to as 'lost opportunity cost', since a decision to pursue a college education also means that a different opportunity cannot be pursued.

    Where net gains or losses are concerned, at the simplest level, it's necessary to compare the outcomes of a decision to pursue a college education versus not attending college but pursuing a different opportunity. On the college side you've got 4 years worth of anemic part time earnings, plus another ~40 years worth of 'professional' earnings, minus the cost of tuition and other college related expenses. On the non-college side you've got ~44 years worth of earnings from the different opportunity.

    Indeed, today, lots of college majors can result in a situation where the 4 years of reduced earnings while attending college, plus the cost of tuition and other college related expenses, results in a lower total dollar figure ~44 years down the road than if the person had not attended college but worked regularly for the entire time. In such cases, attending college results in a net loss !!!
    Last edited by Melonie; 06-25-2014 at 09:00 AM.

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    Default Re: 30 Best Paying College Majors: 2014

    Quote Originally Posted by 1st_samurai View Post
    upper echelons of finance.
    This does not mean a sit in your comfy PJs at home daytrader. There are a miniscule % of private investors that are successful, but for the most part private investors are losers:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIMwMsY0ndo

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    Default Re: 30 Best Paying College Majors: 2014

    ^^^ indeed, for SW dancers and camgirls, the 'lost opportunity costs' of deciding to pursue a college education are significant. For example, following the opportunity to dance or cam full time for 4 years versus attending college could be worth $200,000 in the bank at the end of those 4 years !!! And even if invested conservatively, that $200,000 would in turn produce $8,000 per year in passive earnings, year after year, forever. On the flip side, attending college for 4 years, and dancing or camming just enough to cover tuition costs, would leave the graduating dancer or camgirl in a position of starting out $200,000 'in the hole' PLUS $8,000 per year even deeper 'in the hole'. Making up for this financially would require an additional $200,000/40 plus $8,000 = $13,000 per year as a 'professional' than could be earned in a vanilla job not requiring a degree. Some 'professions' can easily provide this additional earnings potential. But many 'professions' cannot !!!

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    Default Re: 30 Best Paying College Majors: 2014

    The longevity of programmers are just slightly longer than dancers.

    Half Life of a Tech Worker: 15 Years
    http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarge...fifteen-years/

    "Statistics show that most software developers are out of the field by age 40."
    http://www.bloombergview.com/article...english-majors

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    Default Re: 30 Best Paying College Majors: 2014

    I just want to say....I thought engineers made a hell of a lot more than that. I was thinking 150,000 min.

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    Default Re: 30 Best Paying College Majors: 2014

    Quote Originally Posted by 1st_samurai View Post
    This does not mean a sit in your comfy PJs at home daytrader. There are a miniscule % of private investors that are successful, but for the most part private investors are losers:
    I was seriously dismayed this trip. Almost every guy I did a room with was a broker. The one gentleman I told I had a friend who traded options part time and makes 80,000( hence my other thread) he said and for every one like her there's thousands making nothing...

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    Default Re: 30 Best Paying College Majors: 2014

    I thought engineers made a hell of a lot more than that. I was thinking 150,000 min.
    If you look at the percentiles in the chart at , you'll see that $150k falls at the 75th or 90th percentile for the most 'in demand' engineering specialties. Starting pay is below $80k typically. And as 1st_samurai pointed out in the other thread, those US engineers currently receiving 75%+ percentile high pay rates are likely doing so as the result of many years of service with a prominent US employer ... a scenario that is unlikely to be repeated for future 'generations' of US engineers.

    What goes unmentioned is that today's higher pay scale US engineering jobs may also involve working in sub-zero oil fields, 3000 ft below ground in a mine, 100 feet away from radioactive fuel rods, 1000 ft in the air on a steel building skeleton etc. ... or may involve having to make yourself available 24/7 to deal with unexpected problems ... or may involve getting thrown on an airplane on a couple of hours notice, and not returning 'home' for weeks !!!

    As 1st_samurai alluded to earlier in this thread, many of the former 9 to 5 'office work' US engineering jobs have already been outsourced to engineering firms in India, China etc., or offshored to engineering divisions of US companies in India, China etc., where engineers get paid less than $50k a year. And of the remaining US 9 to 5 'office work' engineering jobs, many are being filled by foreign engineers working under H1-B visas for maybe $60k per year. Thus, increasingly, remaining US engineering jobs with anything resembling an acceptable trade-off on pay rate now involve 'getting your hands dirty'.

    Similarly, the supposed shortage of US engineers is actually a shortage of US engineers who are willing to 'get their hands dirty', or willing to drop everything else in their lives when the phone rings, or willing to spend the next month 1000+ miles away from home on very short notice.


    Last edited by Melonie; 06-25-2014 at 01:07 PM.

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    Default Re: 30 Best Paying College Majors: 2014

    Quote Originally Posted by 1st_samurai View Post

    During a recession, a Finance major, for example, earns 32% more than the average college graduate one year after graduation. A Religion and Philosophy major earns 55% less than the average graduate (which means the consolation of philosophy comes in handy). In concrete terms, if the average college grad earns $45,000/year after college, the average Finance major would be making just under $60K, while the average Religion and Philosophy major would be making a smidge above $20K. For reference, the median American makes $27,000 per year. So your college major can represent the difference between being poor, and making over double that of the average American--and that's just after one year.

    Yet I feel uneasy simply advising students to ditch their majors and start learning to code.

    For one thing, not everyone is suited for every major.
    It really depends what you do with your degree... that's why I hate lists like this. I mean my degree is in theatre and psychology and I went to school with a ton of people who did nothing but party and write shit papers and are they going to get good jobs? Probably not, but it's not because of what their degree is in, it's because they have absolutely nothing to make themselves stand out amongst all the other psychology/theatre students. You can get a degree in something not on that list and work your ass off and end making as much anyone with these degrees.

    I mean, if you get BA in Philosophy and keeping going with your education and you end up becoming a professor at a private university, you're going to be making a lot more than that a year, and you're also going to save a ton of money on the great benefits that universities offer their employees, which extend to their families, and if you have kids, 200,000 on a college education for each other your children. And you might write a book that ends up making you a shit ton of money. Or you could get a BA in it and work at McDonalds, your choice.

    And the professor might be a much happier person because they're doing something they love and not doing something just because you make more money doing it.

    My degree is not on this list, which doesn't surprise me, but I read through this list and said Boring... Really Boring...Ugh... Couldn't Do That... Boring.... so I agree with you, not everyone can do every degree. I don't have a math or a science mind, me doing engineering would be an epic fail. My cousin went into engineering because he wanted to make lots of $ and the program was so difficult for him that he ended up having a nervous breakdown. He's a very smart guy, he ended up getting his Phd in Public Health and he writes legislation in Washington now, but he didn't have an engineering mind.

    Also, let's not forget how stiff the competition is for some of those programs, Nursing in particular is a hugely popular right now because it only requires a BA, there's always jobs, etc. I have a lot of friends who wanted to do nursing and only one of them got into a nursing program, and these were all 3.5+ students.

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    Default Re: 30 Best Paying College Majors: 2014

    ^ very true. I use to dance for this geek who was a genius. I can't remember his exact degree but he worked at 7/11. He was too awkward to ever excel in his field. Some people have good degrees and aren't successful. Some people don't have degrees and are very successful. All come down to how you apply yourself and some people are lazy and just plain don't want to do the work required to achieve success.

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    Default Re: 30 Best Paying College Majors: 2014

    I have no idea what I'll do with my political science degree after I graduate. Probably keep dancing. I guess I could always go back to the Army and get a commission!

    A friend of mine has his PhD in poli sci and works in a coffee shop while living in his mother's basement.

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    Default Re: 30 Best Paying College Majors: 2014

    My that's sad. Imo.

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    Default Re: 30 Best Paying College Majors: 2014

    Old but funny:


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    Default Re: 30 Best Paying College Majors: 2014

    There are several real factors that are always overlooked but far more important in technology engineering fields. Simply put, you have to stay a little ahead of the industry to remain in demand. Average pay is just that, average pay. The money is in product RND, product design and new services/SDKs/tech. There are niches where a very old technology can't be replaced for some reason but is mission critical and those can pay well.

    I cringe when I see hype articles written by bloggers who are just quoting something some guy said at some company,. On the software side, it really has nothing to do with age. The people who really know how things work and can leverage that experience are just as likely to be over 40 as anything. The question is what is their expertise in? Twelve years ago Cold Fusion and Perl were all the rage, nobody is really interested in either of those now so if you made a living being a CF guru and didn't jump ship at the appropriate time it would be a bummer to your career. These are very trendy industries, being on top of an industry that is always chasing the newest shiniest things is critical to staying relevant and in demand.

    The good news for software is that it has never been easier to go indy. Still a ton of work and requires wearing hats some people don't want to deal with. It is a real option and is starting to become a lucrative alternative to joining megacorp and writing boring code for something you have no passion for.

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