Why College Majors Matter Analysis

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Nonetheless, many individuals have made the argument that college majors are vital to students because they dictate your salary and they are needed to get into fields like engineering and science. In truth, a variety of college majors go on to pursue vastly different careers with a significant difference in their wages. In the article “Major Differences: Why Undergraduate Majors Matter” by Anthony P. Carnevale and Michelle Melton, they make the argument to leaders and advocators for education that majors play a significant role when it comes to disparages in salary. Carnevale and Melton asserts,
“In one of the most extreme examples, for instance, Counseling Psychology majors make an average of $29,000 per year, compared to $120,000 for Petroleum …show more content…
This factor is a huge influence when students finally choose their majors, with many students pursuing the STEM field for this very reason. But who wouldn’t? Atlantic editor Joe Pinsker, in his article “Rich Kids Study English”, affirms that students whose parents make less money often pursue more “useful” subjects, such as math or physics. In hopes to improve their socioeconomic status most students would put the economic prospects of their major above all. Moreover, socioeconomic background has a huge influence on the type of major a student chooses because poorer students may feel pressured to pursue a high income job to help their family rather than something that actually interest them. Even so, salary is only one aspect of why majors are imperative to college …show more content…
In actuality, those students who receive a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts can go on to get a graduate level degree, in which they can significantly increase their yield of income. If salary was a major factor to some students, this would make their earnings competitive to those of certain engineers and those who are starting out in the medical field. Nonetheless, income shouldn’t be the determining factor of one’s major. A student’s overall interest in the subject should always be the upmost important factor due to the fact that their passion can take them in any direction they so choose, regardless of what they majored in in college. In the previously stated article “Major Differences: Why Undergraduate Majors Matter”, Carnevale and Melton also make a plea to educators to help college students better choices when it comes to their major. They emphasize the fact that, at the end of the day, how much money students make post-college completely depends on how they use their degree. Moreover, many students can, and usually do, use the skills they gained in internships and in their major to pursue careers in other fields, including those in STEM. Therefore, they do not have to feel limited to just becoming doctors, mathematicians, and engineers. Although it is true that they need their major to do those
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