An important college lesson — on pay

By The Des Moines Register

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A teen knows she loves to read Chaucer. She goes to college and declares a major in English. What she may not know is what that degree will mean in the job market after she graduates. If she did know, she may develop a sudden interest in petroleum or aerospace engineering and read “The Canterbury Tales” in her spare time.

Thanks to a new report from Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, people can now know the future earning implications from specific college majors.

“What's it Worth? The Economic Value of College Majors” used census data to analyze earnings based on 171 college majors in 15 categories. This first-of-its-kind report provides more information than just how much people in certain professions earn. It shows where people with specific college majors end up working and how much money they ultimately earn.

Families and college students should take a look at this report. What you study in college matters.

It matters because college is expensive. It matters because it can influence whether you may get a job after graduation. It matters because when students are leaving school with huge debt, people can't simply see higher education as the “next step” after high school. We also have to see it as an investment. And we have to consider whether that investment will eventually pay off in the real, working world.

Take two students. Both attend the same school. Both end up with bachelor's degrees. Both have the same debt upon graduation. The one who studied petroleum engineering earns about $120,000. The one who majored in counseling psychology earns $29,000. Which one will have an easier time paying off student loans and buying a house?

Of course, this reality check may not matter to some people.

Those of us drawn to philosophy or religion or psychology pursue that course of study because it is what we are interested in. We know we won't make it through school if we have to spend years wading through dense books about chemical engineering. And if students only considered this report in choosing a major, there would be few teachers or social workers in the world.

For generations, parents have told their teens that economic security can be found if they “just finish college.” And college graduates do earn 84 percent more over a lifetime than their high-school educated counterparts. But that general number was about all people knew.

“If you wanted to know specifics about what, say, an English degree might mean in the labor market, you were largely out of luck,” according to the report.

Not anymore.

The 183-page report provides information to consider when deciding a major. It also contains all kinds of interesting details on everything from the worth of graduate degrees to the fields with the highest unemployment rates to how majors break down by race and gender. It's worth a look by anyone who cares about what happens to students after they graduate.