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As millions of students head off to college this fall, well-meaning parents often encourage them to choose the major of their dreams. Sometimes, students have known for years the particular career that would be perfect for them. Other times, students enter college “undecided” and end up making a decision as they move through their coursework. But few students realize the economic impact of their choices.
On average, an individual with a bachelor’s degree earns nearly twice the lifetime income of someone with a high school diploma. But just as significant – from a monetary point of view – is the choice of major that can either launch a student into a high paying career or leave the graduate struggling to pay off skyrocketing student debt. In fact, college graduates with the highest-paying majors earn $3.4 million more than those with the lowest-paying majors, over the course of their careers, according to a study by the Georgetown University Center of Education and the Workforce.
The choice of major can have an even bigger impact on future earnings than the choice of school, according to PayScale, an online salary, benefits and compensation information company. So which majors reap the greatest reward for your tuition and time? Hands down, engineering. In fact, the 2016-2017 College Salary Report by PayScale listed various fields of Engineering in nine of the top ten spots. (Actuarial Science ranked third.)
Petroleum Engineering, which took the top spot with a mid-career annual salary of $172,000, is offered as a major at many campuses of Penn State University and at several Texas universities. Systems Engineering, which came in second, is offered at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), the University of Pittsburgh, and Drexel University. Chemical Engineering, which tied with Actuarial Science for third place, is offered at Princeton, Rutgers, and Rowan universities, New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), Stevens Institute of Technology, New York University (NYU), Lehigh University, Lafayette College, and the University of Delaware. Tied for fifth place was Computer Science & Engineering and Nuclear Engineering. The former can be found at The College of New Jersey (TCNJ), Villanova University, Hofstra University, the University of Scranton, and the University of Connecticut. The latter is offered at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), NYU, and many campuses of Penn State University.
Of course, these are national statistics that do not take into account the various job climates in different parts of the country. In New Jersey, for example, the highest-paying industries are Pharmaceutical Research & Development and Pharmaceutical Manufacturing. The reason is simply that New Jersey is home to some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, including Novartis, Johnson & Johnson, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Merck. Other high paying fields in the Garden State are Information Technology and Financial Services.
Perhaps students should take this information into account when they check off the “choice of major” box on their college applications!
Susan Alaimo is the founder and director of SAT Smart in Hillsborough that has been offering PSAT, SAT, and ACT preparation courses, as well as private tutoring by IVY-League educated instructors, for more than 20 years. Visit www.SATsmart.com.
