The Economic Value of College Majors

June 13, 2011 by Andrew Atwal

 

Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce

The report released by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, not only outlines the economic value of obtaining a bachelor’s degree, but which degrees carry the highest wages.

The report states that on average a full-time, full-year worker with a bachelor’s degree can expect to make 84 percent more over a lifetime than a colleague who has no better than a high school diploma. At the extreme, the highest earning major earns 314 percent more at the median level than the lowest-earning major at the median level. The report notes that earning potential should not be the sole reason why a student chooses a particular major, but, nevertheless, it should be something that the student considers.

The report gets its data from the 2009 American Community Survey results which included questions on what one studied in college. The most popular majors, according to the data, were business management and administration (8 percent), general business (5 percent), Accounting (5 percent), and nursing (4 percent). In comparison, the least popular majors include military technologies, soil science, and pharmacology (all less than 1 percent of all majors).

The three most popular majors ranged in salaries at the median from $58,000 to $63,000.

Petroleum Engineering is by far the highest-earning bachelor’s degree major with median earnings of $120,000. It is followed by pharmaceutical sciences and administration at $105,000 at the median; and mathematical and computer science with median earnings of $98,000.

On the other hand, the lowest paying majors are counseling psychology with median earnings of $29,000; early childhood education with median earnings of $36,000; and theology and religious vocations and human services and community organization, both of which have median earnings of $38,000.

Majors that earn the most also have the most extreme variations in earnings. For example, petroleum engineering has a variation of $107,000 between earnings at the 25th and 75th percentiles.

Female bachelor’s degree holders typically earn the most with a degree in pharmaceutical sciences and administration (median $100,000); information sciences (median $75,000); and chemical engineering (median $72,000).

However, male bachelor’s degree holders earn the most with a major in petroleum engineering (median $120,000); pharmaceutical sciences and administration (median $110,000); and chemical engineering (median $92,000).

Although bachelor’s degree majors often link to occupations, no one major is perfectly linked to a particular occupation.

 

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