Of course,
I heard that my whole life, and went out and got two of them from a highly reputable university and with highly annoying student loans.
But, not all degrees are created equally just as not all jobs are created equally.
Which means not all college educations are equally valuable--in fact some are a dadgum joke.
And, for most of us, they still come with those highly annoying student loans afterward.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/careersandeducation/the-highest-and-lowest-paying-college-majors-in-america/ss-BBSiHMO?ocid=spartanntp
While I am far past the stage of trying to figure out what to do with my life--college and job-wise, there is information out there that can help prevent younger people (and those my age that still just want to go to college and get a good job) from making costly mistakes--both with their money and their time.
From the above link, you will find both the top 25 highest paying college degrees and the bottom 25 lowest paying college degrees. And while some people are needed in all those fields, it is important that people know which will require a rich spouse or 2nd job, which will allow them to live the life they want, and which are so flooded with applicants they are unlikely to evet get a chance to work in that field. The best example I can think of is the man that becomes a dentist and hates it despite decent pay and then goes back and gets a teaching degree--and loves the rest of his career. But I also knew people with MA's in Literature that spent a lifetime working in the city parks--no jobs in his field without moving, the university he went to had saturated the local market. Money is part of why we work, and figuring out what we want to do at 18 or even 21 with limited life experience makes choosing a degree for a lifetime of work rather insane.
While reading, remember that the current, ALL-JOB unemployment rate is under 4% right now. Jobs with a rate higher than that are probably not going to be needing more per year than the number of currently employed that are retiring or changing careers.
So, the twenty-five highest paying degrees are, in order:
1. Petroleum Engineering, average pay $118,721/year. Unemployment rate is 7.9% and there are 26,461 in the workforce. This degree takes most 5-6 years and is science- and math-intensive. Also, if we address climate change, the need will go down not up.
2. Actuarial Science, average pay $99,421, 2.3% unemployment, 17,624 in the workforce. Most are employed with a Bachelors degree only, so a decent use of 4 years of your life, but math-heavy and be prepared to sound boring for the rest of your life. Don't worry, though, most of us have jobs that are more boring than that and that don't pay as well. There are currently 17,624 people with this degree in the workforce. A dependable choice for the math oriented person.
3. Biochemical Science, average pay $98,332, 2.2% unemployment, 210,098 working with this degree but be aware, 44% have a doctorate which might mean that jobs with less do not pay so well. (Average is not a range) Definitely a science-heavy degree.
4. Molecular Biology, average pay $95,332, 2.2% unemployment, 75,600 in the workforce, 64% have a Master's degree prep at least and 44% have a Doctorate.
5. Health and Medical Prep Programs, (pre-med, pre-dental, pre-pharmacy, pre-nursing, pre-physical therapy, etc, etc, so a very diverse set of jobs here. This is a Bachelors, though many of these do not require a degree, only a set of required courses and acceptance to an actual Medical, Dental, Nursing, etc, program. Average pay is 95,060 with 2.3% unemployment, and 97,977 people in the workforce, 59% go on to get a Doctorate, but be aware, those that do not get into an actual program are not the ones making it pay so well. We all know that a Doctor of Medicine or Osteopathy is going to be pretty well paid and that is raising the average.
6. Applied Mathematics, average pay is $94,897, 2.0% unemployment, 38,349 in the workforce, and 66% have a master's degree.
7. Geoscience, $94,500, 4.0% unemployment, only 14,650 in the workforce, with 86.7% having a Master's level preparation.
Get it if you love it, but prepare for 6 years of college and have a job found as early as possible.
8. Nuclear Engineering,$93,194, 1.9% unemployment, 17,648 in the workforce, 60% get a Masters and 20% go for a Doctorate.
9. Computer Engineering, $92,343, 2.6% unemployment, 306,292 in the workforce. A good Bachelor degree buy.
10. Finance, $91,726, 2.7% unemployment, 1,101,724 in the workforce. (this average salary is from a very wide salary range)
11. Public Policy, $90,631, 2.0% unemployment rate, 36,011 in the workforce, 75% have their Master's degree.
12. Economics, 13. Zoology (say veterinary school after this 95% of the time), 14. Biomedical Engineering, (unemployment 4.15) 15. Chemical Engineering, 16. Mathematics and computer science, 17. Computer Science, 18. electrical engineering, 19. metallurgical engineering (unemployment 5.1%), 20. Aerospace Engineering, (80% master's prep), 21. mechanical engineering, 22. mining and mineral engineering ((6.2% unemployed), 23. Pharmacology, (85% Doctorate prepared), 24. Industrial and Manufacturing engineer, and last but not least--25. Biology, with 47% with master's and 27% with doctorate and averaging $81,955.
Of the 25 lowest paid, the lowest averaging $26,462/year and the highest of the low averaging $39,438, their are 16 that usually prepare people to teach our children. There are three that prepare people to work with poor and mentally ill/disabled people--one of those requiring a Master's degree for employment, there are 3 that train for various types of arts ( a field that is hard to make a living in, and requires talent and frequently a wait-staff job to keep from starving), 1 that leads to a religious life so it is presumed that money is not the object,2 that have traditionally been either vocational classes with certification or on-the-job training positions but are currently the fodder of career colleges that, for a very high fee, usually involving government grants and loans, with provide a bachelor's degree in an amazingly short time.
NOW!!! From the national labor site, you get a slightly different view of the world of Jobs.
https://www.bls.gov/ooh/highest-paying.htm
The top 25 highest paid position include 13 kinds of physicians plus nurse anesthetists (no one with "just a bachelors degree) , CEO's (no specific degree for this one), computer information systems
managers, architectural and engineering
managers, airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers (no degree for this one?), Judges and magistrates--an elected position involving a law degree--notice that a law degree was not on the highest or lowest degree list? lots make little and lots make a lot, and petroleum engineers. The lowest of them make over $130,000/year, the highest more than $204,000/year, as in most of the specialized physician make >204,000/year. (no top number given)
https://www.bls.gov/ooh/fastest-growing.htm
Now, among fastest growing job positions expected on the horizon, important when planning your future, seven require no degree and focus on skilled labor such as installers of solar panels and wind turbines--both paying better than any of the 25 worst paying degrees, service careers in such thing as nursing assistant, personal aid, physical therapy aid, etc., that pay worse than the worst paying degrees but are trained by vo-tech's and career colleges, and several jobs that match the top 25 highest paying degrees so that fastest growing pay ranges from $23,000 to $110,000---so much for supply and demand determining prices.
But what do we need most of?
https://www.bls.gov/ooh/most-new-jobs.htm
Of the top 20, 9 pay under $30,000, 14 require little or no training. Only 6 offer jobs paying over $50,000/year.
How we pay people in the country tells us all what we value.
We don't value the people that care for our sick and dying on a day to day basis.
We don't value the people that educate our children.
We don't value the people that work with those with mental illness, disabilities, addictions, or extreme poverty.
We don't value those that care for our prisoners.
We don't value those that would create beautiful things or invent useful things.
We don't value those that build our homes or service our belongings.
We value money.
Odd, when you consider that money is like a zero. It's a placeholder. You can't even stack it up or count it now that it is mostly lines in a spreadsheet.
And, its only value is as a tool to trade for the things you need, the things you want.
So, if you or your loved one have a dream about what career to follow. Examine it carefully to see if it is really something you want to do. The TV shows don't really do a good job of explaining the details of a job. If you can find someone that already does that job, see if you can shadow them for a week or at least a full day. If you can't find anyone near you that has that job, then consider if you want to move where the jobs are. If you want to move, excellent, but arrange an opportunity to see the job in action for more than an hour.
If college is the goal, whether or not a job is desired, well, you must be rich, so go on your dime with no loans. Lots of people are trying to pay off student loans while not making anymore money than a hard working day laborer.
And beware of
the internet universities and career colleges. Many have such poor reputations that employers don't even want to bother interviewing them for any but the lowest paying jobs.
If your
family has a plumbing business, or a mechanic's garage or some other small business. Consider working there and learning something there. Many of us wish we had done that before we went out and got our degrees that dropped us into careers we knew nothing about and money that was just good enough to keep us from changing to something we actually enjoyed doing.
And, if you get a call about "we see you are interested in a degree", hang up, fast. Reputable schools don't buy lists of numbers from the internet hoping to mine a little government gold off your student loans.
My suggestion to all of you busy trying to grab the brass ring via education.
Ask yourself some questions: What do you enjoy doing, what do you read about for fun, what fascinates you, do you like making things or fixing things or planning things. Who are you now---not who do you think you just might enjoy being? Have you met someone that does what you think you want to do. Will they let you watch them work?
When I taught, and I was a terrible teacher--not everyone has the patience for students that don't want to be there, but when I did, out of every 25 kids, 10 had plans for pro sports, 6 for entertainment, 5 lawyers and 3 doctors--usually only 1-2 of them making passing grades when they announced that, and 1 that planned on doing what a parent did. If I had taught younger kids, it would have been 20 teachers, 2 dinosaurs, a princess, a president, and a soldier.
We do our children no service by not teaching them about the world, the work world, the real life world where what we do impacts our futures.
College was great. I loved the history classes. I learned a lot in the science classes. My math skills got better.
But I could have made the same money or better if I had apprenticed myself to a plumber for a couple of years.
