Best Undergrad College Degrees By Salary (2010-2011)

[variablebinary]

There has been a lot of economic talk on the forum lately. Here is a list that should help some members looking to retrain or go to school for the first time. If you think school is in your future, now is the time to do it.

Decide what to study wisely, and never forget college is an investment in your future, not party time.

The market will dicate what pays the best, but it is always better to have a degree with a real skill with the fewest graduates to job openings ratio. One of the best positions you can be in is to have employers fighting over you.

That said, its a small wonder that engineering leads the way when it comes to getting paid

http://www.payscale.com/best-colleges/degrees.asp

[armakraut]

Yeah, you hit the nail on the head, any businessman will tell you that it's a good thing when people compete to get YOUR services. Science, Business and Mathematics. Always good decisions for private sector employment. Honestly, these days I'd be looking more at public sector employment and medicine. Much more stable.

Business is feast and famine. No matter how much money you make, if you spend and mortgage all your money when times are good, you'll be screwed when times ain't so good. It's always better to live a bit more modest and spartan lifestyle, if for no other reason than it makes the bad times seem a bit less bad when you really fall on your rear end.

By the way, don't solicit or receive advice from anyone who treats chain email letters like the thundering voice of god himself or manna from heaven. Anyone that easily amused or terrified of an email is not a wise oracle to use for the planing of your future.

[ForTehNguyen]

large industry demand for engineers, graduation rates from math and science fields are falling, so not many new engineers get coined every year. Its a difficult major to graduate from a lot of people just cant do it.

<---EE :cool:

[variablebinary]

large industry demand for engineers, graduation rates from math and science fields are falling, so not many new engineers get coined every year. Its a difficult major to graduate from a lot of people just cant do it.

<---EE :cool:

Not only is engineering a tougher discipline, but it is also a very male populated occupation. There are fewer men in college than women currently, with overall male student populations declining.

This should translate to even fewer engineering grads

[randolph]

large industry demand for engineers, graduation rates from math and science fields are falling, so not many new engineers get coined every year. Its a difficult major to graduate from a lot of people just cant do it.

<---EE :cool:

Engineering is a noble field.
that said, there are a tremendous number of unemployeed engineers right now, including a large number of new grads who have never even found their first job.

As you well know, engineering is being dominated by foreign students with fewer and fewer Americans in the field.

[rob_s]

Echoing what Randolf says but re: construction management. There is a huge glut of unemployed project managers right now. It will take years for them to get re-employed. The only hope for a new grad is that an employer thinks that the kid can do for half the salary what the old man does for more.

[Alex V]

Man... I should have been an Petrolium Engineer! Might have even had a free gas card or something.

What randolph said is true. I work with a lot of engineers being an Jr Architect [shit, now you all know that I get paid d*ck] LOL

Electrical, Mechanical and Structural. Of the two companies we work with most as our consultants on projects, the HVAC/Mechanical Engineer is Indian [male], the Mechanical Engineer [Plumbing] is South American [male], the Structural Engineer is Chineese [female] and the Electrical Enginner is Carribean Islender [male]. And I am a Soviet born Jr Architect! HAHA!

I went to an predominantly engineering school, [NJIT] and I would say that 70% of the studend population in the engineering programs were Indian. The Architectural school was still mostly white/American/Male, I would say 80% falling into that catagory. The school was also a sausage fest, so Engineering careers are still almost exclusivly men.

[militarymoron]

interesting chart.
i'm an aerospace engineer, and i'm glad to see my decision 'validated' twenty years later, although i know that it changes with the times and i didn't know it back then. :)
starting salaries were about half of what they are now for new grads. i remember when you were lucky to land a job paying $35k for a new grad back in '90.

i started out as computer science, and almost flunked out of it because i sucked at programming. back then, before the internet (mid-80's) and all the resources we have nowadays, i really didn't know what the different careers were about, so i went into CS because folks said that it'd be a good area to enter.
if someone had told me from the start "follow your interests" - i wouldn't have wasted that time in CS, but would have gone into engineering from the start.
it sure didn't look promising when i graduated in '90. the aerospace industry was in a huge slump, and i worked a part-time job for a year until i got into industry. those were desperate times for aerospace engineers.

[orionz06]

Man... I should have been an Petrolium Engineer! Might have even had a free gas card or something.

What randolph said is true. I work with a lot of engineers being an Jr Architect [shit, now you all know that I get paid d*ck] LOL

Electrical, Mechanical and Structural. Of the two companies we work with most as our consultants on projects, the HVAC/Mechanical Engineer is Indian [male], the Mechanical Engineer [Plumbing] is South American [male], the Structural Engineer is Chineese [female] and the Electrical Enginner is Carribean Islender [male]. And I am a Soviet born Jr Architect! HAHA!

I went to an predominantly engineering school, [NJIT] and I would say that 70% of the studend population in the engineering programs were Indian. The Architectural school was still mostly white/American/Male, I would say 80% falling into that catagory. The school was also a sausage fest, so Engineering careers are still almost exclusivly men.

I have a friend who graduated with me who went petroleum. We are both mechanical and he is making twice what I am, but he is on a rig 6 months out of the year. The pay is there for those who want it, it is not hard to get into, but the demand to go anywhere and live there for months on end deters people. He speaks russian and can work with the other sputnik languages and he had his pick of where he wanted to go. Another friend of mine would have been very far north (cant remember) and actually backed out because of it.

And yes, most schools are a sausage fest, but that is just how it goes.

[Spiffums]

Always a need for Undertakers.

[C4IGrant]

Hmm. I did not see my career field(s) in there. :sad:

Want to make $100K and pay ZERO money for college? Join the Military, work in either Intel, Comms (C2 and C4) as an admin type. Due just 4yrs, get out and get a contracting job doing the same thing. ;)



C4

[jakjakman]

I put the 'ee' in geek. :D

<--Electrical Engineer.

[orionz06]

I put the 'ee' in geek. :D

<--Electrical Engineer.

Sparky!

[dbrowne1]

............

[orionz06]

That idea has been taught pretty well when I was in college.

[VooDoo6Actual]

I did not notice politician there...

[GermanSynergy]

The only thing my degree has done for me was being able to check the proverbial box on job apps "college graduate" YES or NO....