Fresh Trends: College Majors That Lead to High-Paying Job Positions

Published on 2008-08-06

The hardest question for many college students to answer is a relatively simple one: What are you majoring in? Undeclared students are often told to follow their passions. While this is inherently solid advice and can translate into rewarding career opportunities, recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) tells a somewhat different story in regards to how much students will earn 10 years after commencement.

A study produced by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics tracked a group of students who received their bachelor's degrees in the 1992-1993 academic year. After both one year and 10 years in the workforce, the participants were asked about their employment opportunities, experiences, and salaries. Those students who majored in career-oriented subjects such as computers, engineering, education, and business generally made more money in the 10-year span than those who majored in academic-oriented subjects such as the arts, humanities, mathematics, biological sciences, and social sciences. These students were also more likely to pursue job positions within their fields of study.

Overall, annual salaries for most people doubled between 1994 and 2003, from roughly $30,000 to $60,000. As mentioned earlier, students who focused their studies on specific careers made more money at both the one-year and 10-year marks. The highest earners in 1994 and among the highest in 2003 were people who pursued healthcare jobs and engineering jobs. In 1994, healthcare and medical careers brought an average of $40,500 per annum; in 2003, that salary increased to $65,000. Students with mechanical, chemical, marine, and civil engineering jobs earned about $39,000 in their first years and almost $75,000 after a decade of work experience.

On the flip side, those students who pursued education jobs saw the smallest change in the 10-year period, with only a $17,000 increase on average. Social and behavioral sciences majors experienced the biggest overall change in 10 years, as their salaries increased 135% from $26,500 in 1994 to $62,000 in 2003 while they predominantly pursued business and legal jobs. The BLS speculates that the large increase was helped at least in part by the many science majors who received advanced degrees before taking the aforementioned or education and customer service jobs. This was also probably true for biological sciences, physical sciences, and math majors, whose salaries also grew significantly as they obtained medical, business, education, and research jobs.

How much the undergraduate major affected career experiences also varied by major. One year after receiving their degrees, 90% of health majors said that their major was closely related to their nursing and physician jobs. Education and computer science majors also reported a clear link between their field of study and actual teaching and computer jobs. However, fewer arts and humanities majors and social and behavioral sciences majors felt the same way during that first year. Yet by 2003, almost half of those same participants claimed that their undergraduate educations were important to their jobs in education, business, and legal sectors, although not necessarily closely related.

For engineering and computer science jobs, employers often require or prefer workers to have related undergraduate degrees. Thus, those students who choose career-oriented majors have better odds of working in their fields, while academic majors tend to work in a broader range of occupations, including business, education, and law jobs, the study found.

So what does this data mean for the recent high school graduate, college freshman, or even the non-traditional student surveying his or her post-graduation work opportunities? It depends on how rigidly you've charted the trajectory of your career. If you know exactly what kind of job you want to do - or at least that you want to make as much money as possible - your best bet is to major in a career-oriented field of study and pursue related opportunities after graduation. If you're undecided or more flexible about your career path, than it might be wise to major in whatever subject interests you and provides universal skills. Then be prepared to possibly end up working in a different field altogether. Whether you and your classmates end up in California logistics jobs or New Hampshire marketing jobs, keep Fresho.com in mind for your career needs. Our employment listings span all fields of study in all 50 states. Who knows? That auditor job you never thought you'd take with a theater degree could be waiting here!