The most important decision you will make is your major. It is easily in the top 5 of all decisions you will make in your lifetime. Yes, you can move on to a different job later on if you choose the wrong major, but your major will limit your options when you do decide to switch careers if you picked the wrong one. A psychology major simply won’t make nearly as much if they later decide to become a programmer as somebody who majored in computer science from the beginning. A wrong decision can cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars over a lifetime.
People say all the jobs are in STEM fields, but it’s really Technology, Engineering, Medicine, and Business. Science fields that lead to jobs in medicine pay well, but science fields that don’t lead to medicine tend to not do so well. Similarly, math is good because it leads to business jobs, but so does a degree in supply chain management. Medicine has the disadvantage that unlike the other three, many of the best jobs in that area require a graduate degree, and graduate school isn’t a good fit for the overwhelming majority of people.
It’s easy to think you should choose a career you love, but really you should choose a career you can tolerate that’s in high demand. You might say that you’re not interested in just making money, but that’s limiting your thinking. You are likely interested in whether you like your boss, whether you can work flexible hours, whether you’re allowed autonomy in decisions, and whether you can relax occasionally or are constantly bombarded with work with no time to breath. Whether you are able to choose a job that gives you those things or you have to make do with whatever you can get is often reflected in how high demand your field is, and high demand jobs are usually high paying jobs.
If you’re in the bottom half of your high school class in both GPA and SAT scores, strongly consider technical school. Your odds of graduating with a good degree are very low. Similarly if you’re not in the top 10% of one or the other you probably shouldn’t be planning on attending graduate school, and even if you are in the top 10% you most definitely shouldn’t consider yourself a shoo-in to succeed at that level unless you’re in something like the top 2%.
A lot of career counselors aren’t worth listening to. You’re getting career advice from somebody who thought it was a good idea to get a Master’s Degree for a job that pays about the same as a Bachelor’s degree, and with poor employment prospects.
Payscale Data on Bachelor’s Degree Warning: these data are based on self-report, and some of them have low sample sizes. I don’t think I trust the data on cognitive science for instance.
The most important decision you will make is your major. It is easily in the top 5 of all decisions you will make in your lifetime. Yes, you can move on to a different job later on if you choose the wrong major, but your major will limit your options when you do decide to switch careers if you picked the wrong one. A psychology major simply won’t make nearly as much if they later decide to become a programmer as somebody who majored in computer science from the beginning. A wrong decision can cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars over a lifetime.
People say all the jobs are in STEM fields, but it’s really Technology, Engineering, Medicine, and Business. Science fields that lead to jobs in medicine pay well, but science fields that don’t lead to medicine tend to not do so well. Similarly, math is good because it leads to business jobs, but so does a degree in supply chain management. Medicine has the disadvantage that unlike the other three, many of the best jobs in that area require a graduate degree, and graduate school isn’t a good fit for the overwhelming majority of people.
It’s easy to think you should choose a career you love, but really you should choose a career you can tolerate that’s in high demand. You might say that you’re not interested in just making money, but that’s limiting your thinking. You are likely interested in whether you like your boss, whether you can work flexible hours, whether you’re allowed autonomy in decisions, and whether you can relax occasionally or are constantly bombarded with work with no time to breath. Whether you are able to choose a job that gives you those things or you have to make do with whatever you can get is often reflected in how high demand your field is, and high demand jobs are usually high paying jobs.
If you’re in the bottom half of your high school class in both GPA and SAT scores, strongly consider technical school. Your odds of graduating with a good degree are very low. Similarly if you’re not in the top 10% of one or the other you probably shouldn’t be planning on attending graduate school, and even if you are in the top 10% you most definitely shouldn’t consider yourself a shoo-in to succeed at that level unless you’re in something like the top 2%.
A lot of career counselors aren’t worth listening to. You’re getting career advice from somebody who thought it was a good idea to get a Master’s Degree for a job that pays about the same as a Bachelor’s degree, and with poor employment prospects.
Bryan Caplan’s Advice to College Students
Occupational Outlook Handbook
Payscale Data on Bachelor’s Degree Warning: these data are based on self-report, and some of them have low sample sizes. I don’t think I trust the data on cognitive science for instance.
The Economist’s College Rankings