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If you’re in the process of choosing a college degree, you may be interested to know the trends in college majors, whether you can a job after you graduate, and the starting salaries for careers in your field of study.
It’s true that certain majors get trendy for a period of time and then become less popular for a while. However, the popularity of the degree does not necessarily imply that there are a lot of jobs available in that field once you graduate.
What are Students Studying?
These days, business, social studies and history, and education are the top three major fields of study according to the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (2009). The largest number of degrees were conferred in the following fields in 2006-07, according to the Digest of Education Statistics (2008):
Business — By and large, the number of college graduates in business outnumbered all the rest with 328,000 graduates.
Social Sciences and History — Arriving at second place with half as many graduates were social science and history majors with 164,000 degrees conferred.
Education — 106,000 students graduated with a degree in education during 2006-07.
Health Sciences – Health sciences graduated about 102,000 students. Not surprisingly, this low number of graduates has contributed to the nursing shortage in the United States.
The Popularity of Majors Shifts at the Graduate Levels
The popularity shifts when students enter graduate school. During the same years mentioned above, most master’s degrees were awarded in education (177,000) with business trailing second (150,000).
Surprisingly, at the doctoral level, health sciences and related clinical services took the top spot with 8,400 graduates that year. Education followed closely at 8,300 with engineering in third place with 8,100. Trailing at fourth, fifth and sixth were graduates in biological and biomedical sciences (6,400 graduates), psychology (5,200 graduates), and physical sciences (4,800 graduates).
Does Popularity Beget a High Salary?
According to an April 28, 2008 article published on CNN.com entitled “Best Entry-Level Salary for New Grads” by Rachel Zupeck, employers are seeing a competitive trend in certain fields, particularly in engineering and accounting.
The good news is that starting salaries are rising for entry-level college graduates with an average 4 percent increase for 2008 grads. In liberal arts fields, there was an average offer of up to 9 percent over past years.
Keep in mind that the popularity of a major does not necessarily mean that it commands a high salary for college grads. For instance, history majors that graduated in 2008 earned an average of $35,956 while nurses began their careers earning an average of $52,129 that same year.
Look Before You Leap
If earning a high salary is important to you, your best bet is to check out all the career options that your intended field of study offers. You can do Web searches or buy a book that has conducted and catalogued all the research for you, such as The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Choosing a College Major. (This book covers a wide variety of fields and what you can do with a major in each of them.)
The bottom line is that you don’t want to choose a major based on popularity alone. Do some comparative shopping among degrees to determine what you can do with them. Never make a spur-of-the-moment decision when it comes to investing in your college education. With a little forethought, you can choose the right career for you.
