Study shows fluffy majors beget fluffy earnings
A general view of atmosphere at the 2011 New York University commencement. Get all of that smiling done with, because it's a bleak future ahead.
You know the old joke about education—the engineering major says, “how does it work?” the English major says, “do you want fries with that?” Now, the first study ever to try and quantify lifetime earnings of different majors shows that that joke may be funny because it’s true. According to previously unreported census data definitively linking college majors to career earnings, those who majored in engineering, computer science or business earn as much as 50% more over a lifetime than those who major in the humanities, arts, education and psychology. Overall, the study conducted by the Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce found a college degree was still worth it: workers with a bachelor’s degree can still expect to make 84% more in a lifetime than a colleague with only a high school diploma. But as the recession and increasing college costs renew the age-old debate of the value of a college education, are those “critical thinking skills” promised to dance majors really worth it?
Guest:
Anthony Carnevale, director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce and lead author of the study “What’s it worth: the academic value of college majors”
- Patt Morrison for May 26, 2011
- Spring flings and Republican dreams
- Crime is dropping everywhere, but why?
- Happy Meal wars continue: Ronald McDonald & cheap kids toys in the crosshairs
- Study shows fluffy majors beget fluffy earnings
- The Golden State chases the golden carrot
- Alan Arkin’s “Improvised Life”
Also on this episode
Events
Comedy Congress Live
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
7:30 p.m.
- 9 p.m.
Tickets for this event are sold out. Please email Forum Coordinator Jenny Smith at jsmith@kpcc.org to be added to the waitlist. Thank you!
The comedic material emanating from Washington D.C., and state capitols across the country, is enough to make any sitcom writer jealous, even if most of that ... » More info
