Study calculates worth of majors

PHILADELPHIA – The choice of undergraduate major in college is strongly tied to a student’s future earnings, with the highest-paying majors providing salaries of about 300 percent more than the lowest-paying, according to a study released today.

Based on first-of-its-kind census data, the report by Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., also found that majors are highly segregated by race and gender.

College graduates overall make 84 percent more over a lifetime than those with only high school diplomas, the study said. But further analysis of 171 majors shows that various undergraduate majors can lead to significantly different median wages.

Petroleum engineering majors make about $120,000 a year, compared with $29,000 annually for counseling psychology majors, researchers found. Math and computer science majors earn $98,000 while early childhood education majors get paid about $36,000.

“It’s important that you go to college and get a (bachelor’s degree), but it’s almost three to four times more important what you take,” said Anthony Carnevale, director of Georgetown’s Center on Education and the Workforce.

The study found that white men are concentrated in the highest-earning majors, including engineering and pharmaceutical sciences, while women gravitate toward the lowest-earning majors like education, art and social work.

Other findings:

• White men have higher median earnings across all fields except three. Asians pull down the top median salaries in law and public policy ($55,000), psychology and social work ($48,000), and biology and life science ($53,000).

• Fields with virtually no unemployment: geological and geophysical engineering, military technologies, pharmacology and school counseling.

• Fields with the highest unemployment: social psychology, nuclear engineering, and educational administration and supervision.