It's desirable to do what you love for a living—but it helps if what you love pays decently. Bankrate did its due diligence for future college students, looking at US Census Bureau data for 162 degrees that ended up producing labor forces of at least 15,000 people, all with a mission to find which majors prove most valuable (at least in the monetary sense). Here, the top five degrees, their average annual earnings, and the unemployment rate for people with jobs in that field:
- Actuarial science: $108,658; 2.3%
- Zoology: $111,889; 1.4%
- Nuclear engineering: $108,591; 1.8%
- Health and medical prep programs: $130,308; 2.3%
- Applied mathematics: $105,679; 2%
Read on for the least valuable majors.
- Fine arts (miscellaneous): $40,855; 9.1%
- Composition and speech: $44,211; 4.9%
- Clinical psychology: $51,022; 4.8%
- Cosmetology and culinary arts: $42,362; 4.7%
- Visual and performing arts: $43,996; 4%
See how other majors fare
here. (Check out the
best colleges in America.)
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