Top 10 moneymaking degrees
Posted
Aug 04 2009, 05:27 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Forget a job on Wall Street. If you want to make money when you get out of college, engineering is the current hot choice.
The National Association of Colleges and Employers released its 2009 ranking of the top 10 average starting salaries for new college grads, and petroleum engineering was No. 1, at a cool $83,121. Nine of the top 10 jobs have "engineering" in the title.
But does that mean you should change your major immediately? Hold on, said Darwin at Darwin's Finance. Not so fast.
Darwin, a high school math and science wiz, majored in chemical engineering (No. 2 on the list) at a big state university, an experience he discussed in great detail in a post called "Top 10 college degrees in 2009 with massive demand." Funny thing is, he never worked in his field after graduation. He's in project management for a biotech manufacturing firm.
Darwin's major points:
- Don't put lots of stock in these lists. They're "cyclical," he said, noting that finance and other business majors were hot last year.
- Don't underestimate the competition. He thought he was pretty clever until he realized that many of his classmates were smarter and more disciplined. Others who brought less to the table than Darwin were weeded out.
- Know what you want from college life. He worked a lot harder than friends who majored in non-engineering fields. No spring break trips for him. He's not kicking himself now, but we do sense a tinge of regret.
- A bigger paycheck starting out doesn't mean you'll remain among the highest paid. He wrote:
The reason I say not to focus solely on starting salary is that if you're anything like me, you'll work very hard in both your undergrad (post-grad) and your career only to find that finance and business majors, while starting lower, end up making multiples of your salary within years.
Related reading:
Is a college degree worthless?
Will grad school pay off?
Students today, debt slaves forever
How much college debt is too much?
