Agreed that statistics > anecdotes. That said, the list here leaves me wondering about the direction of causation. I’m less interested in current-net-worth than average annual-change-in-net-worth (both % and $) in the years since graduation.
The most obvious reason why the list might look this way is that there are simply more people getting MBAs or engineering degrees. So of course there would be more of those becoming millionaires than there are math students etc.
I’m also not sure if the study actually measured how many people with a given degree actually got this level of wealth by themselves or if they also asked those who had wealthy parents. I don’t have statistics on this but it does sound reasonable (not to say that it necessarily is) that wealthy parents try to direct their children towards those degrees which are ‘useful’ - in their opinion - in a business environment. Since most of these people have a very poor concept of what math actually is, math probably won’t be among that class.
People who study math, theoretical physics or theoretical computer science are also much more likely to stay in academia than do those who studied engineering etc.
For all I know those people who did become millionaires by themselves who got the degrees they got might actually have done much better if they had studied math or theoretical physics.
So a statistic which would really be telling here would be one which measured how many of those getting a certain degree and going into the market are becoming rich.
Is there any particular reason to focus on anecdotes and not focus on the percentage of millionaires who have specific degrees?
http://time100.time.com/2013/11/11/these-are-the-most-popular-college-degrees-earned-by-millionaires/ gives for example a list.
Agreed that statistics > anecdotes. That said, the list here leaves me wondering about the direction of causation. I’m less interested in current-net-worth than average annual-change-in-net-worth (both % and $) in the years since graduation.
I don’t think this list tells you much.
The most obvious reason why the list might look this way is that there are simply more people getting MBAs or engineering degrees. So of course there would be more of those becoming millionaires than there are math students etc.
I’m also not sure if the study actually measured how many people with a given degree actually got this level of wealth by themselves or if they also asked those who had wealthy parents. I don’t have statistics on this but it does sound reasonable (not to say that it necessarily is) that wealthy parents try to direct their children towards those degrees which are ‘useful’ - in their opinion - in a business environment. Since most of these people have a very poor concept of what math actually is, math probably won’t be among that class.
People who study math, theoretical physics or theoretical computer science are also much more likely to stay in academia than do those who studied engineering etc.
For all I know those people who did become millionaires by themselves who got the degrees they got might actually have done much better if they had studied math or theoretical physics.
So a statistic which would really be telling here would be one which measured how many of those getting a certain degree and going into the market are becoming rich.