Which College Majors Pay the Least and Which Land You a Job?

By Elizabeth Sheer, Cheapism.com

Related: Which phone carries offer the lowest fees
Related: Best laptops under $500

Many college freshmen have little or no idea what they want to do with their lives after graduation. And stories about the vast numbers of unemployed or underemployed graduates, especially in these post-recession years, do not allay parents' anxieties.

Several studies, including one published in May by Georgetown University, point out that the choice of college major correlates with employment and earnings, which are both affected by economic cycles. Earning a degree in education, for example, may pave the way toward more job stability but lead to a lower salary than, say, architecture. Overall, students who confine their studies to the arts, humanities, and human services can expect to earn less than those who major in technical fields like engineering, math and computers, the sciences, and business.

Click through to find out what recent college graduates can expect to earn, on average, having chosen among 20 specific college majors. Then see what the recent unemployment rates for those majors suggest about their job prospects. All data come from Hard Times, College Majors, Unemployment and Earnings, by Anthony P. Carnevale and Ban Cheah (Georgetown University Center for Education and the Workforce, May 2013).
More from Cheapism:
Where to find the cheapest textbooks?
What are the best cheap airlines?


For more ways to save, follow Cheapism on Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook.
To stay on top of the latest posts, read the Cheapism Blog.