What the Top 1% of Earners Majored In

Yahoo Finance (New York TImes) ^ | 1/23/2012 | ROBERT GEBELOFF and SHAILA DEWAN

[UnwashedPeasant]

We got an interesting question from an academic adviser at a Texas university: could we tell what the top 1 percent of earners majored in?

The writer, sly dog, was probably trying to make a point, because he wrote from a biology department, and it turns out that biology majors make up nearly 7 percent of college graduates who live in households in the top 1 percent.

According to the Census Bureau's 2010 American Community Survey, the majors that give you the best chance of reaching the 1 percent are pre-med, economics, biochemistry, zoology and, yes, biology, in that order.

Below is a chart showing the majors most likely to get into the 1 percent...

[UnwashedPeasant]

Here is the list:

Undergraduate Degree	Total	% Who Are 1 Percenters	Share of All 1 Percenters
Health and Medical Preparatory Programs	142,345	11.80%	0.90%
Economics	1,237,863	8.20%	5.40%
Biochemical Sciences	193,769	7.20%	0.70%
Zoology	159,935	6.90%	0.60%
Biology	1,864,666	6.70%	6.60%
International Relations	146,781	6.70%	0.50%
Political Science and Government	1,427,224	6.20%	4.70%
Physiology	98,181	6.00%	0.30%
Art History and Criticism	137,357	5.90%	0.40%
Chemistry	780,783	5.70%	2.40%
Molecular Biology	64,951	5.60%	0.20%
Area, Ethnic and Civilization Studies	184,906	5.20%	0.50%
Finance	1,071,812	4.80%	2.70%
History	1,351,368	4.70%	3.30%
Business Economics	108,146	4.60%	0.30%
Miscellaneous Psychology	61,257	4.30%	0.10%
Philosophy and Religious Studies	448,095	4.30%	1.00%
Microbiology	147,954	4.20%	0.30%
Chemical Engineering	347,959	4.10%	0.80%
Physics	346,455	4.10%	0.70%
Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Sciences and Administration	334,016	3.90%	0.70%
Accounting	2,296,601	3.90%	4.70%
Mathematics	840,137	3.90%	1.70%
English Language and Literature	1,938,988	3.80%	3.80%
Miscellaneous Biology	52,895	3.70%	0.10%

[jessduntno]

Huh. Someone get me Obama’s transcripts will you? I’d like to see which classes he took and his GPA.

[LouAvul]

Useless list. An undergraduate degree in history made the list? What the “researchers” aren’t telling is what the grads did after college to get into the 1%. A lot of people who majored in history go on to get law degrees, etc.

[MikeD]

Physics below Art History? Really? Oh well, too late for me now...

[Wuli]

ping

[djwright]

Zoology....these are the children of the 1% not the ones who earned it.

[Wuli]

This is interesting, but what I think would make it even more interesting is in total, and separately for each of the college majors in the list, what are the current occupations of those in the top 1%

I think it would suprise many people to see just how many in the top 1% are NOT in or even close to “Wall Street”, and just how many are not even in a “business” profession.

[2ndDivisionVet]

I’d be willing to bet that a good percentage of them have never seen the inside of a college classroom.

[ScarletRed]

Gotta say. Your tagline is the best I’ve seen in awhile. And as other’s have pointed out, this survey says nothing about what you do afterwards, so its interesting but a bit pointless.

[Cowboy Bob]

Useless list. An undergraduate degree in history made the list?

History majors go on to Law School...

[EQAndyBuzz]

They should pick a year, go forward and omit for the survey any student whose family is already in the 1%.

[9YearLurker]

I’m going to make a wild guess that the art history majors in the one percent lean a bit toward women from wealthy families who also married well.

[9YearLurker]

Medicine is one of the most businessy of the professions: they have done very well at restricting entry into the field.

[paudio]

What the list doesn’t show is the selectivity issue. Some people might have chosen ‘history’ or ‘philosophy’ because their family could afford them to choose such majors. So, it’d be interesting to see how many of those majoring in humanities actually came from the family of say Top 20%.

[HangThemHigh]

". So, it’d be interesting to see how many of those majoring in humanities actually came from the family of say Top 20%."

I think it would be interesting to see how many of these people are working outside their college degree. I bet many of these people are running businesses that have little or nothing to do with their college degree, especially the art & history majors.

[paudio]

I only would like to know how many of the 1% are married to each other. Could it be some are the spouses who majored in humanities?

[central_va]

Looks like the H1-b visa program has really worked to keep wages down in the engineering field. Way to go USA.

[central_va]

As a contrast and not defending Euroweenies, If you did this survey in Europe Engineering and science would be near the top. Here it is a tiny little fraction.

[Reeses]

I think it would be interesting to see how many of these people are working outside their college degree. I bet many of these people are running businesses that have little or nothing to do with their college degree, especially the art & history majors

Also, what percentage of the non-inherited rich have a college degree? Not Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, Paul Allen, Carl Icahn, David Geffen, most celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Tiger Woods, etc. While there is a correlation between college and income that does not imply causation. Brains and/or talent is the actual the causation, and colleges do not hand those out.

It should also be pointed out that the very easiest and most certain method of joining the 1% is to marry into it. As John Kerry proved, good looks and personality are not a requirement.

[martin_fierro]