A rising number of college graduates have doubts about the “wage premium” their diplomas were expected to provide by commanding better than average starting pay—especially compared to the levels of student debt they assumed to pay tuition. But recent data shows their disgruntlement is likely rooted in the specific of kinds degrees those employees chose while in school, instead of alternative that command up to double the amount of early- and mid-career salaries.
A recent survey by jobs site Indeed found fully one-third of college graduate employees considered their diplomas a waste of time and money, and said they could have fulfilled their current jobs without them. But research by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York suggests those frustrations may arise more from people who graduated with degrees like foreign languages, social sciences, and performing arts, rather than in engineering and computer science. The difference between median early career wages earned by that first group of former students was around $40,000 a year, while members of the latter cohort were paid about $80,000.
Graduates who studied any kind of engineering—computer, chemical, electrical, industrial, civil, mechanical, and others—fared much better than most peers by earning median entry salaries of $70,000 to $80,000. Those rose to $115,000 to $125,000 by mid-career. That compared to social services and general education majors who tend to start work at around $42,000, and take in $49,000 to $54,000 midway through their professional lives.
Read more at Inc.
