[Ken522]

I remember the geology majors in the 80s - oil bottomed out at about $9 a barrel - who couldn’t find a job ANYWHERE close to their area of study ... times change!

[RightGeek]

But I was a promised a good job too if I majored in Ethnic Studies!

[HereInTheHeartland]

A 4 year engineering degree in about any field is a great asset for someone to get.

[Vigilanteman]

Yeah, but this involves real work and they expect real results. No bonus points are given for the right ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation. < / sarcasm >

[bigbob]

McDonalds in the Bakken Shale area of ND and MT are paying $18/hr just to get someone to work. So there’s maybe hope there for English majors too.

[ClearCase_guy]

I have a relative; a very, very smart young lady. She was accepted at a very prestigious, very expensive university.

She decided to major in History. Dumb idea. Really a tremendous waste of money.

However, after just a few months on campus she decided to change her major. She is now three years into the study of Third World Women's Literature, or some such crap.

[MacMattico]

In the early 90’s if you majored in Paper Science/Engineering at SUNY ESF ( Environmental Science and Forestry), the main campus basically part of Syracuse University but a separate state school, all of the graduates were offered jobs right out of school starting in the $60,000 plus range.

And you paid state tuition!

Yes, it's an Environmental Science school, but paper engineering involves cutting down trees— made the tree huggers mad at every turn!

Quick trivia: by size, I think ESF is the largest school in the country owning tons of acres in the Adirondacks and the Wanakena Ranger school at Cranberry Lake.

[dfwgator]

[SVTCobra03]

As a recent retiree from Devon Energy, I can tell you that newly minted petroleum engineering graduates are getting up to $100k per year and petroleum land management graduates up to $85k per year.

[Antoninus II]

Duh!!

[FreedomPoster]

Regarding the 80s oil bust - in the Winter of ‘82 I had an offer letter for $29.9k/yr from Exxon to go to Houston, a princely sum for a wet behind the ears newly-graduated engineer in those days.

Best job I never took. I got a Graduate Research Assitanceship and stayed for a Masters degree. Later that Summer/Fall, the oil bust hit. I’d have been sitting in Houston with an apartment lease and no job, and would have had to break the lease and scramble for a job somewhere.