Choosing your major is one of the most important decisions you’ll ever make in your life. It’s also one of the hardest.
It determines the difference between having a six-figure salary or receiving unemployment benefits. Between working in Dairy Queen or at a major law firm. Between paying off your student loans or waiting 20 years to have them forgiven.
This is an enormous life decision very few 18-year-olds are apt to make, so it’s no surprise that many students struggle picking a major.
All too often, the news cycle centers around tales of millennials burdened by debt for a degree they now consider worthless. It all comes down to what you study, so choose your major wisely.
While the university’s petroleum engineering students can expect an annual salary of $136,000 after a few years in the labor force, those studying social work, studio arts, or early childhood education will only make $40,000 before state and federal taxes.
If you’re studying computer science, expect to make $80,000. If you’re studying music, however, expect to make half as much unless you become the next Beethoven.
While a foreign language degree puts you three times above the federal poverty line, a degree in finance puts you six times above it.
At the entry level, those graduating in STEM have salaries of $43,000 a year. Those graduating from the humanities and liberal arts, on the other hand,  make a mere $29,000 upon graduation, the same as a full-time cashier at Walmart.
Ironically, the highest-paying majors are rarely the chosen majors, even within the lowest-paid disciplines. In the liberal arts—which includes history, English, foreign languages, philosophy, and more—the most popular majors are the ones with the worst return on investment. Economics, which is offered by the university as a Bachelor of Arts, has the highest earnings of all liberal arts subfields.
Compared to its more popular alternative, political science, an economics degree from the LSU College of Humanities & Social Sciences can get you a salary of nearly 50% more by your mid-career. Yet, the university granted a mere 13 BAs in economics during the past academic year, and 152 for political science.
There are also massive earning differences between a BA in communication disorders and one in geography, nearly $15,000 a year. But the university granted 80 degrees for the former and barely 11 for the latter during the same time.
These inter-college disparities exist even within the highest-paid disciplines. Median mid-career earnings differ by almost 50% between the highest-paying major and the lowest-paying major in business. That figure is nearly 150% for subjects in health.
For many students, statistics on projected salaries are less important than choosing a major you “love.” Don’t be surprised when doing what you love turns your scholastic dreams into a financial nightmare.
According to a survey by the Pew Research Center, a third of liberal arts graduates regret choosing their major. Across all fields, 29% of respondents say a different major would have better prepared them for their careers.
The difference in lifetime wages between a high school graduate and a college graduate have been estimated at $1 million. That same figure rises to $3.4 million when comparing graduates of the lowest and the highest-paying majors.
Ultimately, choosing whether to study one subject over the other is more important than choosing whether to attend college. You must not take this decision lightly. Choose your major wisely.
Samuel Camacho is a 21-year-old economics junior from Maracaibo, Venezuela.