We talk a lot about the need for
good jobs in America, but good-paying jobs often require certain
skills. Engineering, science and technical degrees are seen as highly
prized, and not without merit.
Make More Than Accounting?!?
This should be a huge relief to
parents putting their children through college and wondering how junior
is ever going to be able to pay the bills after earning a master's
degree in Elizabethan poetry.
Research from Payscale.com, Bankrate.com and TheRichest.com
suggests that people with degrees in the humanities can go on to
well-paying jobs. Granted, engineering grads still stand to make the
most, more than six figures, according to Payscale.com. Bankrate pegs
physicians as having the highest median pay at $172,000, but it costs
$137,000 on average to become a doctor. However, not too further down
the financial food chain are some interesting degrees which don't
require you to write code or cure disease to earn enough to pay back
your college loans and then some.
No. 5—JOURNALISM
According
to Payscale, graduates of journalism school have starting median
salaries of $38,100 which jump to $67,700 by midcareer. Broadcast
journalism graduates start out a little lower, but jump a little higher
midcareer to $68,800 in "report"-able income (report, get it? Heh, heh).
TheRichest.com points out that "those with a background in journalism
also tend to be in high demand in lucrative areas such as marketing and
communications." Bottom line: just because you study journalism doesn't
mean you're going to make a living as a journalist.
No. 4—ENGLISH LITERATURE
See
“journalism” above. A degree in one area doesn’t mean you’re going to
make a living there. If you can understand Shakespeare, maybe you can
understand a business plan, or at least know how to market a company
using iambic pentameter. Like journalists, English lit grads can go into
other careers like marketing, PR or publishing. Payscale.com reports
median midcareer salaries are $71,400, which is slightly more pay than
the average for people with degrees in business administration!
No. 3—POLITICAL SCIENCE
"Government
jobs are notoriously highly paid," said TheRichest. Really? Well
government lobbying jobs certainly are, and companies often look for
grads with knowledge of public policy. Payscale.com says while median
salaries for poli sci grads start around $40,000, by midcareer they can
nearly double to $78,500. Definitely good enough for government work.
No. 2—INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Skip
the poli sci, go straight to IR. Payscale says this is one of the
best-paying degrees to have, with median incomes by the middle of your
career at $85,700.
AND HERE'S THE ZINGER …
No. 1—PHILOSOPHY
I
think, therefore I … make money! Graduates with philosophy degrees have
"higher earnings potential than many other arts and humanities-related
fields," said TheRichest. Payscale reports midcareer median salaries are
$84,000 for your modern day Kant or Descartes. Why? Well, let's be
logical. Which is exactly what philosophy programs require of students …
logic. Thinking is hard, it requires analysis, and those who can do it
well can get a good job … which is a good philosophy to have.
