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With college commencement season in full bloom, many graduates are looking forward to earning the big bucks in the real world.
A new report from Georgetown University researchers indicates that when it comes to pay, those with degrees earn almost twice as much as those with high school diplomas on average, but majors matter quite a bit when it comes to how much you can expect to earn.
Here’s a sampling of some of the most popular majors and their salaries (2016 figures) from the report, courtesy of its College Major Earnings Tool:
Bachelor’s Degree median earnings: $85K
Bachelor’s Degree median earnings: $80K
Bachelor’s Degree median earnings: $67K
Bachelor’s Degree median earnings: $66K
Bachelor’s Degree median earnings: $66K
Bachelor’s Degree median earnings: $62K
Bachelor’s Degree median earnings: $57K
Bachelor’s Degree median earnings: $57K
Bachelor’s Degree median earnings: $57K
Bachelor’s Degree median earnings: $56K
Bachelor’s Degree median earnings: $53K
Bachelor’s Degree median earnings: $53K
Bachelor’s Degree median earnings: $50K
Bachelor’s Degree median earnings: $47K
Bachelor’s Degree median earnings: $46K
The report, “Five Rules of the College & Career Game” from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce (Georgetown Center) shows that the number of occupations with unique educational requirements tripled to more than 800 from 1985 to 2010. Meanwhile, programs of study more than quintuple from 410 to 2,260.
“The variety of college programs today is a Tower of Babel,” Anthony P. Carnevale, lead author of the report and director of the Georgetown Center, said in a press release. “We need to help students decipher their options in the first major investment in the journey from youth dependency to independent adulthood.”
According to the findings, college grads with a bachelor’s degree earned $62,000 on average, nearly twice that of workers with just a high school diploma. And those with a graduate degree make $80,000 a year, on average.
The findings show graduate degree salaries as well as other types. Among the surprises include the fact that while more education usually adds to your paycheck, less can be worth more as well. “Twenty-eight percent of associate’s degree holders, and many workers with one-year certificates, earn more than the average BA holder. Some bachelor’s degrees holders earn more than the average worker with a graduate degree,” the report says.
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This post was last modified on May 21, 2018 10:24 am
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