Best College Majors - 2017 Data (unemployment rate, high school, incomes)

[rwjoyak]

Another active ABQ thread has a sidebar discussion going on in it about college majors. I just saw this recent internet article - https://www.bankrate.com/career/most...ollege-majors/ - about the topic. Figured rather than putting it in the other thread, since it's a bit off topic there, I would start a new thread.

What I like about this list is that, in addition to median incomes for each type of major, it also shows current unemployment rates by major. And the percentage of workers with advanced degrees for each major. Looks like a pretty decent road map for deciding what to study in college, if you want to ensure your degree is valuable in terms of getting you a job and decent earnings after college. The advanced degree percentages also help in terms of pointing out for which majors a bachelors degree won't be enough, therefore necessitating even more college with the associated additional time and added costs.

The study authors used 2017 US Census data to compile this list, so it's based on pretty recent info. It's for the entire US so obviously has some limitations in extending the conclusions to ABQ; e.g., I doubt there are very many Naval Architecture And Marine Engineering jobs available locally, which is the #1 ranked degree on the list. But it still looks like a worthwhile tool for a high schooler that wants to involve analytics in picking a college major.

[aries63]

Off-topic thread, but for laughs I'll just add that it's not enough to look at how to generate income, you also have to watch where the income goes, and my best advice on that subject is this: don't have kids!