College Majors That Produce The Lowest Earnings After Graduation (2024)

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College Majors That Produce The Lowest Earnings After Graduation? ›

In contrast, students who major in liberal arts, performing arts and theology earn the lowest salaries within five years of graduating from college, according to the study of full-time workers. Graduates of all three majors earned a median annual income of $38,000, the lowest out of the 75 majors in the study.

College majors with the highest and lowest return

Education and humanities majors and arts majors had the lowest returns of the 10 fields of study considered.

Among the least common majors in the US between 2020 and 2021 was Architecture and Related Services with only about 9,296 students earning their degree in the major. The area of study focuses on engineering, art, drawing, designing, the theory of design, layouts, and the history of architecture.

The top three regret-free majors, all above 70%, are computer and information sciences, criminology, and engineering. Graduates strongly tied their sentiments toward their majors to job prospects, ZipRecruiter found. They're also less likely to regret pursuing quantitative fields.

The humanities and social sciences face the most significant threat, while physics, engineering, and similar fields have also felt the pinch post-COVID-19. As colleges continue to face enrollment declines and financial stress, many are turning to cutting less-popular majors.

Some popular college majors in high demand include computer science, nursing, engineering, finance, and data science. These fields offer excellent career prospects and competitive salaries.

Which degree has the lowest starting pay? ›

On average the top earning courses in terms of starting salary were medicine and dentistry; engineering and technology; economics; computer science; and education. The lowest earning courses were psychology; English; design and creative arts; biological sciences; and history and philosophy.

While people have different qualifications and different ideas of what constitutes a good salary, most would consider $75,000 per year to be good pay.

In 2012, a household income of $35,364 qualified you as a member of the middle class in the U.S.; in 2022, $50,099 was the lowest minimum household income threshold,” Go Banking Rates lead writer, Gabrielle Olya, wrote in the report.

Students who major in liberal arts, performing arts and theology earn the lowest salaries within five years of graduating from college, a recent New York Federal Reserve analysis reveals. All three majors made a median annual income of $38,000, the lowest out of the 75 majors in the study.

Among business majors, business management and communications earned the lowest starting and mid salaries. Business management grads, on average, earned $46,000 early career, while communications grads, on average, pulled in $47,000. Both earned $75,000 by mid-career.