There’s lots of chatter out there these days about how college students are getting degrees in Lithuanian Folk Dancing instead of Mechanical Engineering, and how they should stop whining about their poor job prospects.
Point well taken, but I was interested to come across this interactive table, courtesy of a link from Ryan Avent. Here, sorted by the most popular majors.
|
BUSINESS MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION
|
6.0%
|
$38,000
|
$56,000
|
$85,000
|
1
|
|
GENERAL BUSINESS
|
5.3%
|
$38,000
|
$59,000
|
$91,000
|
2
|
|
ACCOUNTING
|
5.4%
|
$41,000
|
$61,000
|
$94,000
|
3
|
|
NURSING
|
2.2%
|
$48,000
|
$60,000
|
$80,000
|
4
|
|
PSYCHOLOGY
|
6.1%
|
$30,000
|
$43,000
|
$65,000
|
5
|
|
MARKETING AND MARKETING RESEARCH
|
5.9%
|
$40,000
|
$59,000
|
$90,000
|
6
|
|
COMMUNICATIONS
|
6.3%
|
$35,000
|
$50,000
|
$81,000
|
7
|
|
ELEMENTARY EDUCATION
|
3.6%
|
$32,000
|
$40,000
|
$49,000
|
8
|
|
GENERAL EDUCATION
|
4.2%
|
$31,000
|
$41,000
|
$53,000
|
9
|
|
COMPUTER SCIENCE
|
5.6%
|
$50,000
|
$77,000
|
$102,000
|
10
|
|
ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
|
6.7%
|
$32,000
|
$48,000
|
$75,000
|
11
|
|
FINANCE
|
4.5%
|
$44,000
|
$65,000
|
$101,000
|
12
|
|
CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND FIRE PROTECTION
|
4.7%
|
$36,000
|
$50,000
|
$73,000
|
13
|
|
BIOLOGY
|
5.6%
|
$35,000
|
$51,000
|
$76,000
|
14
|
|
POLITICAL SCIENCE AND GOVERNMENT
|
6.0%
|
$38,000
|
$57,000
|
$91,000
|
15
|
|
ECONOMICS
|
6.3%
|
$42,000
|
$69,000
|
$108,000
|
16
|
|
ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
|
5.0%
|
$60,000
|
$86,000
|
$111,000
|
17
|
|
HISTORY
|
6.5%
|
$34,000
|
$50,000
|
$81,000
|
18
|
|
SOCIOLOGY
|
7.0%
|
$33,000
|
$45,000
|
$67,000
|
19
|
|
LIBERAL ARTS
|
7.6%
|
$32,000
|
$48,000
|
$71,000
|
20
|
|
COMMERCIAL ART AND GRAPHIC DESIGN
|
8.1%
|
$31,000
|
$45,000
|
$69,000
|
21
|
Clearly, people with more utilitarian degrees have lower unemployment, and higher salaries. Not surprising. But there are all sorts of interesting surprises. English majors, for instance, have only marginally higher unemployment, and marginally lower salaries, than Business Management and Administration majors. Whodathunkit. It doesn’t seem irrational to me — given most students’ inherent uncertainty about their future career paths — to spend four years doing something you love instead of something you hate.
Also: according to this table you’re more of an idiot if you got a degree in Economics when you could have studied Electrical Engineering.
I don’t have any grand narratives to present about this. Just thought curious souls would find wandering through this data as interesting as I did.