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Best Paying College Majors: How Does Yours Compare?
IBD ^ | 10/22/2015 | BY PAUL KATZEFF, INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

Posted on 10/22/2015 6:52:07 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

If you are trying to figure out what to major in at college, then take a look at typical salaries for each major. After all, odds are that college will cost you — or your son, daughter or grandchild — a lot. It makes sense to get a handle on the payback.

Clarifying your career-earnings prospects can aid your career planning and retirement planning.

It turns out that the highest pay goes to people whose undergraduate degrees were in sciences related to energy exploration, production and transportation, according to PayScale.com.

Majors in computer sciences and engineering and related fields also rank in the top 10, both early in graduates' careers and at the typical midcareer mark.

"The top of the list is dominated by STEM majors," said Katie Bardaro, PayScale's vice president of analytics, referring to majors in science, technology, engineering and math.

People who majored in petroleum engineering and nuclear engineering have the highest median annual salaries once they rack up at least 10 years of experience. Their median salaries are $168,000 and $121,000, according to PayScale's latest information.

Actuarial mathematics, chemical engineering, and electronics and communications engineering were next, with median salaries of $119,000, $118,000 and $116,000.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Society
KEYWORDS: career; college; collegedegree; pay
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To: InterceptPoint

If you look at college as a pre-professional school, then something like play-writing is a hard row to hoe. Many want to do it, very very few succeed.

But if you look at college as a way of learning the history of western ideas and ideals, and learning to write and speak of complicated ideas but with clear and understandable language, then a humanities major is a great way to start out in life. Your starting salary won’t be as high as the engineers’, but your upside is greater, because you can think broadly, not merely calculatingly.

The number of English majors at the top levels of Wall Street and corporate America would surprise a lot of people who wrongly assume that business is a computational exercise.


21 posted on 10/22/2015 7:47:56 AM PDT by babble-on
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To: envisio

“... world needs cowboy mechanics...”

Um... so do you lube, oil and put a new filter in a cowboy?! :)


22 posted on 10/22/2015 8:09:24 AM PDT by momtothree
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To: SeekAndFind

BOOKMARK


23 posted on 10/22/2015 8:10:07 AM PDT by DFG ("Dumb, Dependent, and Democrat is no way to go through life" - Louie Gohmert (R-TX))
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To: momtothree

No, that would be a technician’s job. I hire Mexicans for that.


24 posted on 10/22/2015 8:14:26 AM PDT by envisio (I ain't here long... I'm out of napalm and .22 bullets.)
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To: envisio

LOL!! You’re a hoot!


25 posted on 10/22/2015 8:34:33 AM PDT by momtothree
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To: InterceptPoint

Happiness is important too?

I have a granddaughter who is a whiz in math and science. She has chosen a small state college and is going for an Occupational Therapy degree. It is a 2 year degree so I told her she needed to work on her bachelor’s in conjunction with that program.

She met with Dr. So and So Tuesday, he gave her a plan which gives her a bachelor’s by the end of the next fall semester and she will have her OT degree in the spring semester, that will be a month after she turns 21.

After all that was said he asked her why she was there and that she should be at Harvard or somewhere else. You would think that she would’ve felt complimented but it just made her anxious.

I did tell her to just stay the course, she will have all the pre-med courses and she still has a lot of time.

So my advice is he’s still young and has a lot of years ahead of him and nothing is set in stone.

My grandson is also darned smart and is eighth out of 569 and he wants to be a singer/actor, LOL.


26 posted on 10/22/2015 8:38:46 AM PDT by tiki ( r)
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To: InterceptPoint

Tell him to spend some time looking for a job as a writer and find out how many jobs are open and what they pay.


27 posted on 10/22/2015 8:52:09 AM PDT by laker_dad
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To: PennsylvaniaMom
She questioned WHY he would select THAT type of curriculum with all the negative affects on the environment from drilling, fracking and pipelines.

He should have sent her the chart above, lol. Career counsellors at HS and college are supposed to help naive young people make responsible decisions, but in fact they are too stupid to even know what good choices are. When I wanted to do electrical engineering, physics, or biomed, they tried to steer me elsewhere also. I was the first in my family to ever go to college, so I couldn't get advice from family, the counsellor said, "You don't want to do that, those are really hard." Having just come out of the Army, I explained that I was going to college so I could get a financially rewarding career, not to check a box.

28 posted on 10/22/2015 8:55:12 AM PDT by LambSlave
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To: SeekAndFind

Wish I could do math to save my life. :/


29 posted on 10/22/2015 9:05:04 AM PDT by Politicalkiddo ("Laws against the possession of weapons...disarm those who have no intention of committing a crime".)
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To: babble-on

Your mileage may vary. English major has served me very well.

<><><><

As has my philosophy degree. Never have eaten from the public trough and have never been unemployed in the 35+ year since I graduated with said degree.

And have never worked in academia.


30 posted on 10/22/2015 9:22:14 AM PDT by dmz
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