College Majors may be one of the most important decisions you'll ever make, and so you can see why it's important to put quite a bit of thought into it! There are various motivations to choose a college major. You may simply have a passion for a subject, be very good at something, already have a career mapped out, or you may want a stepping stone to earning loads of money. There is nothing wrong with high-earning college majors! You don’t have to have sound educational reasons to choose a college major. Ambition and an eye on your future are just as important. The high-earning college majors that can put you at the top of the money tree are quite surprising, but take a look at what the USA’s top 1% earners studied. With thanks to USnewsuniversitydirectory.com for the statistics, here are 7 College Majors to be a Top Earner:
Did you know that 8. 2% of the top 1% earners take economics as their major? A Bachelor of Arts (BA) in business economics helps you to analyze and understand what makes the business world move. Skills and comprehension in inflation and deflation, employment factors, growth and recession, and taxes are useful to the future movers and shakers of the business world. Economics is a good choice if you are academically inclined but don’t want a classically academic major.
If you harbor an ambition to go into law and politics, or world, national or local government, political science is among the high-earning college majors you should consider. Political science can be a challenging topic though. Need a little incentive to consider this topic as a college major? Well, 6.2% of the top 1% earners have a BA in political science and public administration. That's enough to convince me!
I did say some of the high earning college majors would surprise you and this is one of them. An unexpected 5.9% of holders of BA's in art history enter the top 1% earners. It sounds odd to me, and the statistics sadly don’t give reasons as to why people choose this subject, nor why it is one of the high-earning college degrees. Even though you learn how art relates to design etc., what kinds of jobs will this lead to?
Now this college major is one that is far more understandable. After all, they do say money makes the world go round! Understanding finance is crucial for anyone who wants to make it big. One of the fastest growing careers in the US is financial examiners, so there is sound basis in fact that financial subjects will make for good, high-earning college degrees! Of the top 1%, you’re looking at 4.8% being undergraduates in finance and business administration.
Here’s the second surprise entry in college majors. An amazing 4.3% of the US 1% top earners have taken a degree in religious studies. Again, there is no reason given, nor any indication of what top paying jobs this degree qualifies or prepares you for. As fascinating as it is to learn about specific faiths, religion in general and how it affects lives, I am wondering to what truly practical use it is put that makes it worth very high salaries.
So, qualifying as a medical doctor or surgeon doesn’t propel you into the top 1%, but pharmacy is one of the high-earning college majors. A college major in pharmacy can usually offer job security as well, because people will always need medicine. Another way to approach the idea of taking pharmacy as a college major is to look at it in this light: As a pharmacist, you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you are helping people. A very surprising 3.9% of top earners have a Doctor of Pharmacy degree.
Not to be confused with degrees in other financial disciplines, I think accounting is probably the least unexpected entry in the list of high earning college degrees. Whatever the giants of the business world are doing, they need to know how much money they are making and how they can make more by paying less taxes and smarter investments (as well as operational activities, of course) and that is where the accountant comes in. 3.9% of the top 1% earners major in accounting.
What an interesting list! Of course, taking one of these high-earning college majors doesn’t mean you will enter that exclusive 1% of top earners. It takes a lot more than a college degree to be a super earner, but with dedication, your hard work can pay off! What college majors do you consider to be top earners?
Top Image Source: graduatejobsouth.co.uk