Top earning college majors
September 7, 2011 1 Comment
Recently, Time Magazine took the time to analyze 171 college majors to determine which majors earn the most and least amounts of money. Below is the list of the 10 highest and 10 lowest earning majors. And – what a shock – the highest earning majors all involve a great deal of mathematics!
Highest-Earning Majors
- Mining and Mineral Engineering
- Metallurgical Engineering
- Mechanical Engineering
- Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering
- Electrical Engineering
- Chemical Engineering
- Aerospace Engineering
- Mathematics and Computer Sciences
- Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Administration
- Petroleum Engineering
Lowest-Earning Majors
- Health and Medical Preparatory Programs
- Visual and Performing Arts
- Communication-Disorders Sciences and Services
- Studio Arts
- Drama and Theater Arts
- Social Work
- Human Services and Community Organizations
- Theology and Religious Vocations
- Early Childhood Education
- Counseling and Psychology
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,2073703,00.html#ixzz1Vg4a0U4x
Musings on Math 
This may be a little off topic, but on a plane ride to San Francisco, I met an old Taiwanese man whose son attended Stanford years ago. Being interested in attending the same university, I got in a discussion with what kind of courses this prestigious school offered. And at Stanford, they offered this major ( I forgot the name of it) that combined advanced neuroscience, biotech engineering, computer science, and software engineering all into one massive major. This was years ago, so his son graduated and became an artistic computer director at Pixar (he helped make Toy Story 3), his roommate (who took the same major), went off to be a major part in making Google, and his friends (who also took the same major) are working for the airforce, developing technologies for predator drones in which the pilot can command the plane to shoot missiles accurately at targets just by looking at a monitor and thinking about the target (essentially a war plane being flown and operated without the need of controllers). While the above list in this article isn’t exactly the most specific description of the majors, it’s certainly interesting to know just how far someone can really go when armed with knowledge like that (but then again, this is Stanford University, one of the pioneers in making self-driving cars). I think they still offer that course, but it’s now split up so it’s not this one giant major (given how much more diverse this world has become and how much more knowledge is now required just for one field).