Calculating the Potential Return on Your Major

By Jacques Steinberg

As the cost of college climbs ever higher each year, amid a national economic forecast that remains cloudy, questions about the value of a four-year degree are being raised with increased urgency.

The latest piece of evidence to become part of that debate is a report released Tuesday by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. Its seductive title: “What’s it Worth? The Economic Value of College Majors.”

The good news? “While there is a lot of variation in earnings over a lifetime,” the center said in a press release, “the authors find that all undergraduate majors are ‘worth it,’ even taking into account the cost of college and lost earnings.”

And yet, for those applicants to college seeking the most bang for their buck — at least as defined as maximizing their lifetime earnings — the authors used census data to conclude that the top majors as ranked by highest median earnings included petroleum engineer ($120,000), pharmacy/pharmaceutical sciences ($105,000) and mathematics and computer sciences ($98,000). The lowest? Counseling/psychology ($29,000), early childhood education ($36,000) and theology/religious vocations ($38,000.)

Often in discussions like these, the “value” of a liberal arts education becomes difficult to peg. While not always utilitarian or pragmatic, a degree in English or the humanities can enrich one’s life, in incalculable ways, for decades. But do such degrees “pay”?

“Liberal arts and humanities majors end up in the middle of the pack in terms of earnings and employment,” the center says in its release. “They are the third most popular major group, and earn median incomes of $47,000. Moreover, about 40 percent of people with these majors obtain a graduate degree, reaping a return of almost 50 percent.”

Those who wish to dive further into the report, which numbers more than 200 pages, can do so here.

But as a less intimidating first stop, I suggest that readers detour instead to the Web site of The Chronicle of Higher Education, where the editors have created an interactive graphic in which users can easily seek out the range of career earnings for those who have studied particular majors.

But regardless of where you seek out more information, I hope you will take a moment to register a comment on The Choice using the box below. I am particularly interested in how strong a factor you believe one’s future earnings should be in choosing a course of study in college.

Comments are no longer being accepted.

H. Osborne May 24, 2011 · 1:01 pm

This report on what a college degree is worth is some-
thing every parent and student aspiring to attend college should read. While there are other factors than money to be considered when planning one’s future, it (money) is of paramount importance.

A. Mercer May 24, 2011 · 1:08 pm

The Chronicle doesn’t account for post-bac and professional degrees either. The numbers for life sciences seem a bit misleading, as most of my classmates during my undergrad degree have gone on for more education or do not hold a job in their respective field.

john.skinner@asu.edu, dianeb@asu.edu, hoi.cheung@asu.edu May 24, 2011 · 1:09 pm

interesting.

griffith May 24, 2011 · 1:17 pm

earnings are the most important consideration. cash flow becomes more important as we get older.satisfaction, happiness etc is easier to come by if you can do things for others[family,friends,schools]

Sarah Lee May 24, 2011 · 1:18 pm

As a parent of a college student, with two more in high school, this is a big concern of mine. I see many kids coming back home to live with their parents after getting BA’s in English, history, etc. and they are trying to pay back husge student loans.
Seems to me four years at university ought to prepare students for a job earning a decent wage!

S Weiner May 24, 2011 · 1:18 pm

The future earnings potential of a major is absolutely one of the criteria which should be considered when choosing a major. The student can of course decide that the amount of money that they will likely earn is not important to them, or that there are more important factors that will determine their decision, but all means, they should at least KNOW.

Rob May 24, 2011 · 1:19 pm

I believe that one’s future earnings should be paramount in making a decision.

The world has changed.

I’ve advised my nephew to choose a career where he won’t need a boss. One where he’ll never be fired, let go or downsized.

Jim May 24, 2011 · 1:21 pm

If petroleum engineer profession has the highest pay, how come we still have a shortage of good petroleum engineers in the industry? Are you sure that the highest paid professionals not medical related such as surgeons or other medical specialists? I personally think this survey is biased.

mary May 24, 2011 · 1:24 pm

Yes, a basic Liberal Arts degree is worth a great deal in Life Enrichment and knowledge of how to continue to learn thoughout life. In addition, it is a great base for a law degree or even a graduate degree in macro-economics.

On its own, an undergraduate degree in Liberal Arts, is only a ticket to scramble about trying to get on the professional ladder, especially without family money or very good “connections”.

Kelly Loren May 24, 2011 · 1:28 pm

What you can expect to earn with your degree matters and it should effect *how* you choose to study but not *what* you choose to study.

You should never choose a major just because there are lots of job opportunities that pay well in that field. When you graduate you may find you have no interest and don’t enjoy working in that field and then you’re stuck with a degree that is not going to help you get closer to the type of jobs that will make you happy.

At the same time, if you know you want to major in something that doesn’t often pay well or lead to immediate and easy to find job opportunities (english, psychology, and philosophy I’m looking at you here) then you need to prepare for that.

You should consider a second major or perhaps a minor in a field that has better job prospects. Or choose a cheaper university to study at. And this I am serious about.

No matter how amazing you believe the education at Harvard will be, it doesn’t pay to leave school with $200,000 in student loan debt (figuring no scholarships) if you can only hope to make $38,000 a year working in that field. Go to a state school. Many public schools are given a bad reputation but offer just as amazing opportunities if you’re willing to look for them.

Don’t give up on your dreams because of the bad economy. But have a very solid backup plan for your day-job in the meantime.

Roger May 24, 2011 · 1:28 pm

How strong a factor should future earnings be in choosing a college major depends entirely on the individual. But having an objective understanding of at least the average earnings for others with your major should be of critical importance, particularly if you intend to exceed the norm. However, liberal arts majors are typically chosen by those who plan to attend (professional) graduate school) and therefore a more important statistic would be how others in your major fare in admissions to professional schools. For those who don’t expect to attend graduate school, but who hope to work full-time after graduation in a field related to their major, they should pay keen attention to the stats on future earnings.

katekeeper May 24, 2011 · 1:29 pm

I think people focus too much on pedigree and top schools and majors. despite having been admitted to my dream schools, my parents could not afford any of them (one w/ education up to elementary, and one with HS), so i went to my safety school – which was a commuter school giving me a 4 yr scholarship. I learned a lot, worked internships all 4 yrs I was in college and I got a right job out of college. Sure, I didn’t have greek life or campus life or what not (i did the subway commute) and i didnt have great parties and all that…but i never was once unemployed and i make over 100k…w/o any student debt. In my career, i’ve met english majors and philosophy majors and chem engineering majors doing what i do (web development, programming, business analysit). Go to college. Any college. Learn to be a life long learner – learn to be an adult. Your life and career if what you make of it. That’s the most important lesson – not your school name, who your parents know, how much money your parents have.

Lin Young May 24, 2011 · 1:32 pm

I think that an education is important for personal development. I view college as a place to explore ideas, learn new things and learn how learn to become a life-long learner. I don’t think people should choose a course of study based on future earnings. I’ve known people who did that and decades later found themselves locked into careers for which they had no passion.

I’ve changed careers so many times over my lifetime. Maybe I should have chosen a degree that would have yielded buckets of money, but so many careers don’t even require a specific degree, they just require a degree.

In addition, I walked away from a lucrative career in financial planning because I hated it and it left me feeling chronically stressed out. I left to pursue my lower-paying passion. Many of my friends have done the same over the years.

I honestly think there shouldn’t be such a big differential between what various jobs pay. If someone is good at what they do, they deserve to be fairly compensated.

But there are things that are more important than money in life. And when it comes to academic study, I really think the emphasis should be on learning, and learning how to become a life-long learner rather than on how much money one might earn. After all, we all start college so young and inexperienced in life, we really don’t know what we want to do with the next 40-80 years of our life.

Ben May 24, 2011 · 1:36 pm

I always knew psychology degrees have few inroads into the labor market. I have a PhD in Psychology. I was stalked for 3 years by psychology professors and for calling out their deception in selling college students on their major by depicting it as a “road to everything.” All those disingenuous career counseling sessions (and professor blogs) in which students were told that the World at Large values the psychological aspects of every profession and that applicants for all kinds of jobs from marketing / advertising to the life sciences should know to “look out for those psychology majors.” This kind of thing should be investigated as fraud.

Scott May 24, 2011 · 1:40 pm

It would be very interesting if these numbers were linked to the schools, then a cost benefit analysis could add depth.

Jerry Vadnesic May 24, 2011 · 1:41 pm

What would be more interesting is the ratio of the economic value of that degee and the cost of getting that degree. While you shouldn’t look strictly at the salary you will get when deciding on a degree, you might want to factor that into your choice of schools. I remember reading a column in the NYT that described a woman with a religious studies degree from NYU. She was heavily in debt with little income coming in. While NYU is a fine (but expensive) school, if she really wanted to major in religious studies she might have been better served by attending a lower cost university.

Christopher Woodall May 24, 2011 · 1:42 pm

From the experience of various friends majoring in something that has pretty good earnings (engineering), but you don’t love will leave you very unhappy and more over might make you unsuccessful as those jobs are also becoming more competitive. Jobs like petroleum engineering have nice end pay, but very few people have a passionate love for petroleum. Likewise one of the more popular engineerings, Electrical, has a nice median salary AND is something which has a lot of passion behind it.

I say pick your major by what you love, but know your risks as well. Also, you should try to pick a major which will give you the most options in the field you want to be involved in and independent enough to start your own business down the road (yes, you should take those econ classes).

Gene May 24, 2011 · 1:42 pm

I hope this study is not used to further marginalize the humanities. Maybe learning for its own sake is a luxury in economically tough times, but it is a luxury we cannot do without. Incomes higher than 50K are not correlated with increased happiness and your income is not “life’s report card.” The study of philosophy, literature, and the arts give depth and meaning to life that money won’t. That’s the real bottom line.

MD May 24, 2011 · 1:50 pm

I’m glad to see that with my degree in English that after 38 years in publishing and journalism, I make as much as median engineer with an advanced degree. Many factors led to this contrary turn of events, but I praise two. For the last 25 years of my career I have belonged to a union; and the specialty news organization I have worked for during that period has consistently made a profit and shared it with its employees.

OSU Engineer May 24, 2011 · 1:51 pm

Liberals Arts degree? May I supersize that and would you like Fries with your order?

My son went with “Civil Engineer’ — Most states/cities require you to be a US Citizen and it generally can’t be outsourced overseas.

George Carr May 24, 2011 · 1:52 pm

If you have a career path in mind when starting college, then your choice of major field of study should be a huge factor, and the relative strength of that department should also weigh heavily in your choice of a college.

But for most people, who don’t have a very firm idea about a career path, college is an experiment, and one’s declared major field has much less impact than other factors, like GPA, extracurricular achievement, work habits, and the like. Lots of students do quite well with ‘generic’ college degrees in the sciences or the humanities, although they are frequently limited to ‘generic’ jobs that don’t require as much specialty (or pay as much) as others. But there is always graduate study to help the late-bloomers catch up, and in the meantime, the non-economic benefits of studying something you really love (regardless of its eventual economic value) are usually significant. So likely income shouldn’t be the top factor in choosing a major, but it’s certainly important.

Emily May 24, 2011 · 1:52 pm

I have a BA in Art History from a liberal arts college, and I’m about to celebrate my 10th reunion next week. I was one of those people who chose my major because it was something I loved, not because I knew it would make me money. Trust me, my mom said on more than one occasion “What are you going to do with an art history degree?”

Now (after a brief detour in event planning), I’m a high school teacher in the NYC public schools, teaching math and architectural history, and I think my liberal arts degree has served me VERY well. It taught me about thinking critically and having thoughtful discussion — two skills that I hope I am passing on my students at every turn. Those are skills that will help them in any college major, in any career!

SidVicious May 24, 2011 · 1:52 pm

In fact, the report doesn’t indicate the monetary value of a college major. It only indicates median earnings of alumni with degrees in those majors. There’s a significant difference between the two. The monetary value of a major might yet be assessed, but only by selecting from among degree holders those who have tried to earn as much money as possible.

Of course the bigger question is, with the exception of economics majors, who’s choosing a major on the basis of projected $$ earnings?

PETER SCHWIMER May 24, 2011 · 1:52 pm

The question I suppose is really about why go to college in the first place? Is it just for the money? Quite frankly I know plumbers who make more than the petro-engineers you talk about. So is a college degree worth the money?

On the otherhand, an undergraduate degree might be more about :Learning” with a capital “L”. Hopefully, it would broaden ones horizon’s and provide some insights into the universe of man. It might even provide the basis for “thinking” and connecting the various pieces of information one obtains through a variety of sources.

And thinking quite frankly is what we seem to do less and less. We do not seem to really think about actions and consequences.

duvoisin May 24, 2011 · 1:53 pm

It is really alarming, the rate at which such seemingly reasonable studies of the value of higher education proliferate. The problem with results oriented studies isn’t that they look at results. It’s the specific results they look at! Lifetime earnings potential? Can you imagine a narrower perspective?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for making a buck. But education simply isn’t about that. And the more we encourage parents and students to think about it in those terms, the sooner it will come to be about nothing but that. Vocational training is only about getting that first job. Education is about preparing for a lifetime of jobs, but also about a lifetime of relationships, citizenship, parenthood, aspiration and satisfaction.

I can’t imagine aspiring to be a petroleum engineer. But I can very much imagine enjoying a career in petroleum engineering while I aspired to so much else.

Stop shortchanging our kids by constantly telling them how much everything is worth!