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 But according to Georgetown University professor Anthony Carnevale,
the truly important issue that will affect a student's future is
picking a major.
While attending college will boost your earnings by roughly a
million dollars over the average lifetime, your particular major is
even more important, according to the new study "The Economic Value
of College Majors," compiled by Carnevale and his team at
Georgetown's Center on Education and the Workforce.
In fact, the spread between the highest-earning and the
lowest-earning major and is a whopping $3.4 million in lifetime
wages.
Reuters recently chatted with Carnevale about what students - and
parents - need to know as they mull over college majors:
Q: When students think about college, what do they usually
get wrong?
A: What determines what you make in life is not where you go
to college, but the subject you take when you get there. In the
American mind the goal is to just go to college and get a degree,
but to some extent that is missing the point.
In economic terms, that is not what the game is about. The
difference in the value of college degrees is enormous, and it has
been getting stronger and stronger, ever since the early 1980s.
Q: What are among the highest-earnings majors?
A: Engineering degrees are almost all of the top 10. In
particular, petroleum engineering has busted out of the pack. The
market is so tight that you don't even need a graduate degree. It's
like a gold mine.
Q: And the lowest-earning?
A: Early childhood education. That's one of the sad things
about these numbers: That people who serve others, like teachers,
don't make as much as other majors. They do have pretty high job
security, but in terms of wages, they're the bottom of the heap.
Q: But as you point out, these are just average numbers,
which can vary widely.
A: Your major is important, but it's not your destiny. You can take
a lower-earning major like education, but if you have a strong
career and are in the top 25 percent of your field, you can make as
much or more than a business major. So people who do well in their
careers come out OK, no matter what they take.
Q: Given all the numbers you've looked at, is it worth it to
go to college?
A: In general, yes, it is worth it. That's because you are
going to pay tuition for four or five years, and then earn money off
that degree for 45 years. In fact, it is hard to even get in the
door these days without a college degree.
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Q: How valuable are graduate degrees?
A: There are three types of graduate degrees. With one type,
you basically have to get one these days, or you won't earn a decent
wage: That includes areas like education, psychology, and arts and
humanities.
The second type of grad degree is where you'll be a little better
off with one, like in business. With the third type you'd be crazy
not to get one, because you make so much more money: That's in areas
like science and technology or healthcare.
Q: What surprised you most about this year's numbers?
A: The extent to which all the majors hold up. Even with a
major that's relatively weak, like humanities, it's not to say
college isn't worth it. It still is. Earnings took a bit of a dive
after the recession, but long term, the strength of the labor market
for college grads has been holding up.
Q: For a kid who is getting ready for college right now, what
advice would you have about choosing a major?
A: The first thing is to give it some time, and figure out
who you are and what you do well because if you don't like it and
aren't passionate about it, you are going to end up in the bottom of
that field.
Once you know what interests you and where your abilities lie, then
you can start developing a strategy. The quicker you figure it all
out, the better off you're going to be. These decisions have real
staying power that will affect the rest of your life.
(Editing by Lauren Young, G Crosse)
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