What’s a college education worth? Bachelor’s degree graduates with the most salary offers

Marketwatch ^ | 05/03/2011 | Jennifer Openshaw

[SeekAndFind]

As the cost of a college education skyrockets, some parents may be wondering about the value of going to college — especially with the examples of billionaire Harvard drop-outs Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg front and center.

The price tag for four years at a public university averages about $35,000, according to The College Board. A private college or university can cost about $120,000. So what’s the best return on investment, especially if a student is taking out loans to help finance college? Part of the answer lies in selecting a major that offers the opportunity to quickly move into a career with a good salary.

According to the annual salary survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers, the average salary offer to all class of 2011 graduates now stands at $50,462, up 5.9 percent over the overall average of $47,673 to class of 2010 graduates.

And among those graduates, the ones most likely to see the biggest salary opportunities are those with engineering majors. The bachelor degree graduates likely to receive the most job offers? Accounting positions, whether in the public or private sectors, make up two of the top three spots on that list.

[SeekAndFind]

Majors for 2010-2011 bachelor’s degree graduates with the best salary offers:

Curriculum	Average salary offer
Chemical engineering	$66,886
Computer science	$63,017
Mechanical engineering	$60,739
Electrical/electronics and communications engineering	$60,646
Computer engineering	$60,112
Industrial/manufacturing engineering	$58,549
Systems engineering	$57,497
Engineering technology	$57,176
Information sciences and systems	$56,868
Business systems networking/telecommunications	$56,808

Source: NACE

Jobs for 2010-2011 bachelor’s degree graduates with the most salary offers:

Job function	Average salary offer
Accounting (private)	$50,708
Consulting	$59,933
Accounting (public)	$45,395
Financial/treasury analysis	$52,689
Sales	$42,162
Investment banking (sales and trading)	$65,291
Management trainee (entry-level management)	$43,297

[SeekAndFind]

The worst performing major, according to PayScale, is elementary education, with a median starting salary of $33,000.

Social work has a median starting salary of $33,400.

The best of the bottom 10 college degrees is horticulture, with a median starting salary of $37,200.

Drama and music typically have median starting salaries of $35,600 and $34,000, respectively.

[Perdogg]

thank God I am an EE

[SeekAndFind]

Which begs the next question -— knowing the jobs that are IN DEMAND in this country, why don’t we have more people enrolling in these courses and why the heck do parents still pay over a hundred thousand dollars for a 4 year degree that has little or no demand?

[randog]

thank God I am an EE

Dear heavenly father, I thank you for blessing us with Perdogg and pray that you keep him/her well so that we might continue to bask in Your glory through him/her. I pray this in Your Most Holy Name.

Anything else I can do for ya 'dogg?...;^)

[RC one]

for later

[Mr Ramsbotham]

Dear heavenly father, I thank you for blessing us with Perdogg and pray that you keep him/her well so that we might continue to bask in Your glory through him/her. I pray this in Your Most Holy Name.

LOLOLOL!

[Yo-Yo]

The worst performing major, according to PayScale, is elementary education, with a median starting salary of $33,000.

But I thought all teachers were overpaid, taxpayer provided benefits sucking union thugs?

[tiki]

Not everyone has the intellect to be an engineer or accountant.

I believe that many, if not most, have no business in college. I know so many who wasted time and money on educations that they haven’t used yet and are doing nothing remotely related to their degree.

[MrEdd]

Learn advanced mathmatics.

Ridicule of majors that don’t require it is unkind, but usually justified.

Sorry if this post hurts anyone’s feelings.

I take it back, I’m not sorry.

[NavyCanDo]

I think it was Michael Medved who said if you do 3 things – you will be in the 89% percentile for Success.

• Finish High School

• Don’t have children until you are married

• Don’t marry until you reach 24

College was not among the three. I followed the three to a tee, and I did alright without college and the huge college loan that would have had to been paid back. And my salary is much higher than those listed above.

[Martin Tell]

Yeah, well you can add on about $20K to that salary for the value of the benies. I know because Mrs. Tell took an elementary ed job last year. Pay is in the noted range, but the medical benefits are top notch.

[2banana]

Where is “African American Womyn's Studies?”

[Nervous Tick]

>> Why the heck do parents still pay over a hundred thousand dollars for a 4 year degree that has little or no demand?

Because their spoiled-rotten spawn clamor to go to university for the purpose of drinking to excess and “hooking up” every night, and said parents are NOT in the habit of saying NO to their useless spawn.

In my humble opinion. :-)

[Netizen]

The best of the bottom 10 college degrees is horticulture, with a median starting salary of $37,200.

Is that based on a Bachelor of Science degree or a PhD?

[Nervous Tick]

Learn advanced mathmatics.

Apparently spelling "mathematics" correctly wasn't part of the curriculum, eh? :-)

[TheOldLady]

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[Netizen]

Because their spoiled-rotten spawn clamor to go to university for the purpose of drinking to excess and “hooking up” every night, and said parents are NOT in the habit of saying NO to their useless spawn.

My useless spawn is finishing his second year in the Honors College at Michigan State University where he is studying horticulture, which covers a multitude of careers. He is majoring in plant genetics and minoring in biotech.

He was just awarded a $4,000 Fellowship Grant for research and will be interning this summer. This is what his research is based on.

DEVELOPMENT OF A FUNCTIONAL GENOMICS PLATFORM FOR EXPLORING TROPANE ALKALOID BIOSYNTHESIS IN ATROPA BELLADONNA

Category: (Horticulture) Cell Biology, Genetics, and Genomics

Alkaloids are a diverse group of natural molecules united only through the possession of a basic nitrogen atom that is not incorporated into a peptide or an amide bond. The group contains around 12000 compounds of diverse biochemical origins. These molecules show a wide variety of biochemical activities that give them special importance in pharmacology. For example, alkaloids include the opiate morphine, the antimalarial compound quinine, and the stimulant caffeine. The tropane alkaloids, scopolamine and hyoscyamine are synthesized by several members of the Solanaceae family including the Atropa and Hyoscyamus genera. Scopolamine and hyoscyamine are antagonists of the acetylcholine receptor and serve as the active components of several drugs used to treat gastrointestinal disorders. Despite their medicinal importance, the biosynthesis of hyoscyamine and scopolamine is not fully understood, limiting the ability to engineer their production and to synthesize novel derivatives. This project seeks to develop a functional genomics platform to identify the missing steps in tropane alkaloid biosynthesis in A. belladonna. An A. belladonna transcriptome has been assembled from a combination of normalized cDNA and tissue specific libraries using the Illumina GA2 platform.

The transcriptome contains all of the known genes involved in tropane alkaloid biosynthesis and measurements of transcript abundance indicate that these genes are preferentially expressed in secondary roots. Hierarchical clustering and data mining has identified approximately twenty additional co-expressed genes that encode enzymes that may be involved in the missing steps of tropane alkaloid biosynthesis. Progress on functional characterization of these candidate genes will be presented.

Then next summer he has to go to Austin, Texas where he will present his research findings to those that awarded the Fellowship Grant.

After 4 years and getting his Bachelor of Science degree he already plans on going another 4-5 years to get his PhD.

In case the above synopsis went over your head, some of our medicines are so expensive because they are derived from plants. Sometimes, from large amounts of certain plants and we don't know how certain plants create these properties. Through this type of research we fill in the gaps and learn how to create man made versions at a reduced cost to consumers.

[Reeses]

They always ignore the opportunity costs in their calculations which for some people is substantial. Another thing to consider is the extra work involved for some options, both in school and in career, may not justify the premium. Anyone that wants to be a physician under Obamacare isn’t doing it for the hourly rate.

[Nervous Tick]

Ooooh, touchy, aren’t we.

I wasn’t talking about horticulture (or *any* hard science degree).

I was talking about PoliSci, journalism, black history, wymyn’s studies, “social work”, and all that other crapola that passes for a “degree program” these days.

Congratulations to your useful spawn, and to you as well for putting him through school.

Hey, and thanks ever so much for distilling his research topic into words that even I can understand.