 Forbes
just published its newest list showing which college majors currently enjoy the highest starting salaries. Engineering
and architecture top the list at $50k US, while computers and mathematics follow closely. Next comes health fields
and then business. The physical sciences fare worse than social sciences, which I find disturbing. For comparison,
workers with only a high school education average $22k US. What is not mentioned, but probably implied, is whether
pay for those with only a high school diploma is for right out of school or four years later when the college
graduate would begin his/her career. That might be a more fair comparison since some high school graduates attend
a technical school or a two-year college and would not get compared equitably.
 Another
study recently published by the
Wall Street
Journal (WSJ) reports on the average lifetime salary for various college degrees.
It pretty much follows the new grad salaries, but at least in this one the physical science majors end up earning
more than social science majors. Interestingly, a 'lifetime' is defined as ages 25 through 59. Most graduates
with a Bachelor's degree are about 22 years old, so I'm not sure why 25 is used (yeah, could
imply a graduate degree). For that matter, not many people end their careers at age 59, so what's up with
that?
Being a stickler for grammatical correctness (although admittedly I fail at times),
the egregious error in the opening line of the WSJ article needs to be mentioned. To wit: "Want to make a good
living? Go to college. Just be careful what you major in." The journalist ended her third sentence with a preposition!
Almost nobody cares about that old stuff anymore, though. As
Winston Churchill purportedly
opined on the issue when a newspaper editor dared to correct his article grammar as submitted, "This is the sort
of English up with which I will not put."
Both reports are based on data provided by Georgetown University.
Posted May 18, 2015
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