Blog with Rob: Good News for College Grads – And 22 Majors For your College-Bound High School Grad
It’s the third week in September and parents across the country are breathing a big sigh of relief as students have gone back to school. If you’re a parent of a junior or senior in high school, that sigh of relief may be tempered by the anxiety of rapidly approaching research on campus visits and activities, college majors and post-graduation hire rates.
Well there’s a bit of good news on the horizon. Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce recently released a new study called “Good Jobs Are Back: College Graduates Are First In Line.” The overall findings? The study finds that of the 6.6 million jobs created since 2010, 2.9 million were good jobs paying $53,000 or more and tend to be full-time with lucrative benefits such as retirement and healthcare. The majority of those 2.9 million good jobs went to college graduates. The bad news? While the growth in the low-wage job growth sector was steady at 1.8 million, middle wage jobs have not bounced back with only 1.9 million created–900,000 below the pre-recession number.
The study also discussed the best majors to get a degree in based on hiring. Based on job openings in all 50 states, college-educated workers will have the best odds of finding a job in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), or in managerial and professional office jobs and as health-care professionals, in technical occupations, or in information services, consulting and business services and financial services. It also highlighted the states that are hiring the most college graduates, with Massachusetts, Delaware, and Washington leading the pack.
A separate Georgetown Study found even more interesting results. According to a new report — “From Hard Times to Better Times” — by Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce, the unemployment rate for recent college graduates varies wildly, depending on the type of bachelor’s degree, for those aged 22 to 26. It’s lowest for education majors (5.1%), agriculture and natural resources majors (4.5%), physical science majors (5%) and industrial arts, consumer services and recreation majors (5.4%), while it’s the highest for architecture (10.3%), communication and journalism (8.2%), social sciences (10.1%), psychology and social work (9%), law and public policy (8.6%), and humanities and liberal arts (8.4%).
What does this all mean? College pays off if you’re making sure that you get the right degree. As parents, you may not be familiar with STEM majors or what jobs those translate into. Click here for a slideshow that covers the 22 college majors with the highest starting salary. I also listed a few below. Next time that college discussion comes up, this should come in handy!
Petroleum Engineering – Median starting pay: $102,300
Computer Engineering – Median starting pay: $67,300
Mechanical Engineering – Median starting pay: $62,100
Computer Science – Median starting pay: $61,600
Business Information Systems – Median starting pay: $59,800
