Federal Reserve reveals best thing to study to earn $90,000 within five years of graduating
If you’re worrying about getting out of student debt under late-stage capitalism, a new study has indicated what are the majors that are more likely to have you earn a bigger salary within five years of graduating.
This is hardly news — most students already know that liberal arts and humanistic studies spit out graduates into saturated industries, leading to unemployment or underemployment, whereas scientific degrees are known to provide graduates with a wider safety net and a more consistent annual median salary.
These generational university truths have been confirmed once again in a recent study from the New York Federal Reserve, which has identified the majors to study for those who wish to earn bigger salaries out of college.
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To the shock of absolutely no one, the study observed that in order to earn an annual median salary of $80,000 within five years of leaving college, students should turn to some form of engineering.
Even within the field, not all engineering degrees are equal. More specialised qualifications, such as computer, chemical, and aerospace engineering, are likely to secure an annual median salary of $90,000, $85,000 and $85,000, respectively, compared to the average $75,000 of general engineering.
Other majors to make the list of the most profitable career paths were computer science with $87,000 and finance, which barely made the top ten of the most financially rewarding majors with $70,000 per annum.
Fine arts, history, English, and journalism majors are instead more likely to earn far less than that. The study found that those graduating in those subjects would take home $45,000, $47,500, $48,000 and $49,000, respectively, with more than half their graduates being underemployed.
Contrary to popular belief that medical school is a pretty safe pathway to earn big and have a steady career, medical technician — an umbrella term referring to all professionals in a medical field — have emerged as a similar, low-paying major, with an annual median salary of $62,000 within five years of completing university. That figure decreases for treatment therapy, biological science, and nutrition sciences majors, with a median, early-career salary of no more than $50,000.
Pharmacy, social services, secondary and special education also sees their graduates take home $40,000, $43,000, $45,300 and $46,000 during their early career.
The New York Federal Reserve study measures the median salary against the US personal median income, which includes 15-year-olds and those without a degree at all, and is $45,180.