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College majors of the top 1%

January 26, 2012 By

The undergraduate majors that provide the best chance of reaching the top 1 percent in earnings are pre-med, economics, biochemistry, zoology and biology, according to the Census Bureau’s 2010 American Community Survey. That suggests many high earners are doctors. The high-earning econ majors probably started businesses.

Some 5.9 percent of art history majors end up in the top 1 percent, beating out chemistry and finance. Perhaps art history majors are more likely to start out wealthy.

Qualifying for a good job is a very important reason for going to college, according to 85.9 percent of U.S. freshmen in an annual UCLA survey.  That’s up sharply since the recession began, edging out ”to learn more about things that interest me.”

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College’s economic value depends on the degree

January 8, 2012 By

College is worth it, but majors linked to occupations offer better job prospects than majors focused on general skills, concludes a new Georgetown report, Hard Times: Not All College Degrees Are Created Equal (pdf).

Another general rule: “People who make technology are better off than people who use technology.”

A bachelor’s degree is one of the best weapons a job seeker can wield in the fight for employment and earnings. And staying on campus to earn a graduate degree provides safe
shelter from the immediate economic storm, and will pay off with greater employability and earnings once the graduate enters the labor market. Unemployment for students with new
bachelor’s degrees is an unacceptable 8.9 percent, but it’s a catastrophic 22.9 percent for job seekers with a recent high school diploma — and an almost unthinkable 31.5 percent for recent high school dropouts.

Except for architecture graduates, who’ve been hit hard by the construction crash, unemployment rates are higher in non-technical majors such as the arts (11.1 percent), humanities and liberal arts (9.4 percent), social sciences (8.9 percent) and law and public policy (8.1 percent).

Unemployment is low for computer science (7.8 percent) and math (6 percent) graduates who can write software and invent new applications, higher for information systems graduates (11.7 percent)  ”who use software to manipulate, mine, and disseminate information.”  However, the report predicts jobs for computer majors will “bounce back strongly” as the recovery proceeds.

Median earnings among recent college graduates vary from $55,000 among engineering majors to $30,000 in the arts, psychology and social work. While new graduates in computer engineering average $60,000, physiology graduates average only $24,000.

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Study: Great teachers have lifelong impact

January 7, 2012 By

Students with an excellent elementary or middle-school teacher don’t just earn higher reading and math scores, concludes a new study that tracked one million students in an urban district over 20 years. A single year with a high value-added teacher leads to higher college attendance, higher adult earnings and even lower teenage-pregnancy rates, according to the authors, economists Raj Chetty and John Friedman of Harvard and Columbia Professor Jonah Rockoff.

All else equal, a student with one excellent teacher for one year between fourth and eighth grade would gain $4,600 in lifetime income, compared to a student of similar demographics who has an average teacher. The student with the excellent teacher would also be 0.5 percent more likely to attend college.

It may be difficult to hire more excellent (top five percent) teachers, but it’s not necessary.

. . . the difference in long-term outcome between students who have average teachers and those with poor-performing ones is as significant as the difference between those who have excellent teachers and those with average ones, the study found.

It adds up: Replacing a low-value-added (bottom five percent) teacher with an average teacher would raise a single classroom’s lifetime earnings by about $266,000, the economists estimate.

“If you leave a low value-added teacher in your school for 10 years, rather than replacing him with an average teacher, you are hypothetically talking about $2.5 million in lost income,” said Professor Friedman, one of the coauthors.

. . . “The message is to fire people sooner rather than later,” Professor Friedman said.

When a high value-added teacher transferred to a new school, student performance went up in the grade or subject area taught by that teacher, matching predicted gains. Scores dropped in the school the high-value teacher had left. Conversely, scores went up significantly when a low-value teacher left and dropped in her new school.

“High performing teachers may more than justify much higher pay,” Slate observes.

“Great teachers create great value – perhaps several times their annual salaries,” write the authors. Now a working paper, the study will be submitted to a journal.

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Dual enrollment works only if it’s rigorous

December 14, 2011 By

Dual enrollment — college classes for high school students — boosts college-going and graduation rates only if students take rigorous classes on a college campus, a study finds. There are no gains for marginal students.

Also on Community College Spotlight: More degrees for the dollar?

And, for-profit students are less likely to be working and earn less than similar students who enrolled at a public or private nonprofit college, suggests a new study.

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High dropout rate has high costs

September 14, 2011 By

Low educational attainment has a high cost, writes RiShawn Biddle on Dropout Nation. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s latest report, the median annual income for a high school dropout is $10,996. That’s 60 percent less than workers with some college education and 74 percent less than bachelor’s degree grads.

Young men lag in nearly every educational indicator except math, he adds.

In the Dropout Nation podcast, Biddle argues that President Obama’s $450 billion stimulus plan, which includes $60 billion for “allegedly avoiding teacher layoffs and fixing up school buildings,” will do little for poorly educated jobless Americans.

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Louisiana: CC grads earn more, work more

August 29, 2011 By

Louisiana’s recent associate-degree graduates are more likely to find jobs — at higher pay — than graduates with four-year degrees, according to a state report.

Eighteen months after graduation, 72.5 percent of associate-degree graduates were employed in Louisiana, compared to 59.5 percent of graduates with bachelor’s degrees.  New associate degree holders — many with degrees in medical and technical fields — earned $3,000 a year more than new four-year graduates.

Also on Community College Spotlight: High-paying jobs for two-year graduates.

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Payback

August 28, 2011 By

Which college graduates will earn enough to pay off their loans? Using PayScale data, SmartMoney looked at college costs and median alumni income two years and 15 years after graduation to calculate the return on investment.

For example, a hypothetical grad who spent $100,000 to attend college and now earns $150,000 a year would score 150. The higher the score, obviously, the better.

The payback rankings show flagship state universities provide faster payback than the high-priced Ivy League or other high-end private institutions. Ivy Leaguers earn more, but they paid a lot more. Georgia Tech, a public university that educates many engineers, has the highest payback rank at 221, followed by the University of Texas at Austin. Sarah Lawrence, a very expensive liberal arts college, is the tail-end Charlie at 60.

At Sarah Lawrence College, in Bronxville, N.Y., graduates often choose careers in education, public administration or social work, and come out earning, on average, just $38,600 after two years. (Officials at Sarah Lawrence say that figure may underestimate alumni salaries but also contend that’s beside the point: “Their rewards are measured not just by earnings but by how much they are giving back to society,” says Tom Blum, the vice president of administration.)

Smart Money analyzed only 50 colleges and universities: the eight Ivies, plus more than 40 of the priciest non-Ivy private schools and public universities (based on out-of-state tuition).

As Cost of College points out, the SmartMoney rankings assume students pay the full cost. Many students get some financial aid, especially at the elite private colleges, which have huge endowments. And public flagship universities are a very good deal for in-state students.

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More schooling doesn’t always mean more $

August 8, 2011 By

A college degree is the “gateway to the middle class,” but more education doesn’t always mean more money.

Also on Community College Spotlight: Redesigning adult ed to combine basic skills with job training.

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College grads start at $36,000

August 3, 2011 By

One year after earning a bachelor’s degree, the average employed graduate earns $36,000. The average lifetime value of a college degree is $570,000 on an average $102,000 investment, estimates Brookings’ Hamilton Project. The field makes a big difference: A degree in engineering can add $1 million in earnings over a lifetime while a degree in education can add $241,000, conclude Georgetown researchers.

Also on Community College Spotlight: A Tennessee college is training chemical workers for a huge new German-owned plant.

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STEM rules

July 3, 2011 By

Science and math mastery lead to money, according to this Live Science infographic.

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