Monday, February 06, 2017

Majors Matter

I've told students for years--not everyone needs to go to college, but if you go, where you go to college isn't as important as how much you put into your college education.  And if you want to make a good living, choose a major that will allow you to make a good living.  Engineering degrees will pay more than Aggrieved Victims Studies degrees:
“Deciding your major plays a bigger role in determining your career earnings than does where you go to school or even deciding whether or not to attend at all,” says Gregory Wolniak in an Atlantic interview. He directs the Center for Research on Higher Education Outcomes at NYU Steinhardt and co-authored  How College Affects Students.
You'll get out of it what you put into it.

1 comment:

Ellen K said...

I've told students this as well. Even within the arts industry (or "creatives" as we're now called) there are majors which will be more employable. Become a graphic designer and you can work on all kinds of electronic media from websites to commercials. Become an art history major only if you plan on getting graduate degrees and working in a museum or maybe on the outside for Interpol or the FBI in their fraud divisions. The only way you make money is by having a vision and being very very good at what you do. This is true of most endeavors. I wish to heaven my History major son, whose thesis was on Japan's development of a submarine fleet in the ramp up to WWII, had decided to become an electrician or machinist. He'd be happier and more employable. The sad thing is that now a degree is just a ticket to get in the door. Highly qualified, experienced workers like my husband, who have a proven history of success are discarded by the new young HR groups that only valued a degree and ignore production.