Are college students declaring majors too early?

Like many other new high school graduates, I entered college without a fully realized vision of what I would do once I left, says Adam Turay, a sophomore at the University of Virginia, for the Washington Post. That’s not to say I was clueless; I imagined I would travel, possibly go to grad school, and eventually start a career. I had a few ideas as to what that career would entail, but nothing concrete. Much to the chagrin of my family, I was content to take a variety of courses and let my interests guide me. As far as I was concerned, this was the way it should be. I knew this was not a universal approach. I expected most people to have career trajectories that were more developed than my rough plans. But when I matriculated at the University of Virginia in the fall of last year, it was truly surprising how many freshmen I met that knew exactly what they wanted to do. I noticed in particular that many of the students who hadn’t enrolled with a certain major (like the School of Engineering or the School of Nursing) described themselves as “pre-comm,” which meant that they were planning to apply for the business major at the end of sophomore year…

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Study links college majors to potential earnings

Geological and geophysical engineering are among fields with virtually no unemployment.

The choice of undergraduate major in college is strongly tied to a student’s future earnings, with the highest-paying majors providing salaries of about 300 percent more than the lowest-paying, according to a study released May 24.

Based on first-of-its-kind Census data, the report by Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., also found that majors are highly segregated by race and gender.

College graduates overall make 84 percent more over a lifetime than those with only high school diplomas, the study said. But further analysis of 171 majors shows that various undergraduate majors can lead to significantly different median wages.…Read More

Your college major may not be as important as you think

Many students encounter tremendous pressure from their parents to adopt “practical” majors, and I’ve talked to a handful of students whose parents flatly refused to provide for their educational expenses unless they majored in something career-oriented. With less than half of recent college graduates landing jobs that require a college degree, this concern is understandable, says Zac Bissonnette of The Choice for the New York Times. But it’s misguided. In recent years, research into the importance of choice of major has led to a surprising conclusion: it’s really not all that important. A study conducted by PayScale Inc. found that history majors who pursued careers in business ended up earning, on average, just as much as business majors. Ramit Sethi, a blogger and the author of “I Will Teach You to Be Rich” is also a fan of “impractical majors.” He studied in the Sciences, Technology, and Society Program at Stanford…

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