What would you advised a teen who is looking for a college major with good earning potential?

[Anonymous]

20:51 - yeah, he's going to bring back coal. That's definitely what this country needs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If he's math-oriented, finance, econ or accounting are all pretty useful. (I have an econ undergrad degree and an MBA in finance.) I still had a good time in college and I've done reasonably well career-wise. I do wish I'd discovered logistics/supply chain analysis earlier in my career, though, or pursued actuarial sciences - those both would have been a good fit for me.

Or he could not be a wimp and go ahead and major in math.

[Anonymous]

If he's good at math, actuarial science.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most "professional" engineers i know are doing very well across the job market. Some are running Fortune 500 companies...some like Rex Tillerson (civil engineer) have done well in business and now entering politics. I think most do well because they are "trained" to assess and solve problems. The skill serves them well in life. It is an excellent ndergraduate degree to earn, even if you elect not to stay in the field.

Actually, very few engineers run the companies. Most are doing well, but not CEO well. A typical engineer will start out at about 65K with a BS or 80K+ with an MS. Same for some sciences. My experience is the good performers will see salary increase by 50% adjusted for inflation every 10 years, assuming the. intellectual growth continues. So, 65K at 23 would be 97.5 at 33, and 146 at 43 and 220 at 53....

In my case, I started with a PhD in physics at 31 earning 50K, with is 80K in 2017 dollars. Now, 20 years later, I earn 180K.

Wow. With a PhD in Physics, you must be incredibly smart and could have succeeded in any field. (I genuinely found high-school-level Physics to be nearly impossible.) Do you ever just wish you'd become a surgeon to make the big bucks? (I'm definitely not smart enough to have a PhD in Physics, but am a lawyer, and like you, I also make $180,000, or closer to $225,000 with profit-sharing and bonus.) Either way, I greatly respect anyone with a PhD in Physics.

No desire to have been a Doctor. I would have only done it for the money, which is the wrong reason.

I do not know where my ceiling on salary is. I have no desire to go into management. Instead, I am paid to do what I enjoy. If/when I retire, I will probably continue to do the science, but not worry about what the customers want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Major in whatever he wants in college but go to dental school and become an orthodontist. I've been trying to sell my kids on this, but I don't think they are buying what I'm selling. Orthodontists RAKE in the money.

They do now, but people are 3D printing their own aligner systems now so I'm not sure this is a good long-term plan.

Yes this is the perfect example of how certain fields get disrupted by technology. I went to an ortho for an estimate for invisalign and braces - they quoted me 10K. I went to a company that only uses the orthodontist to create the aligner plan and reviews the teeth xrays. Aligners are sent to me every month - cost $1,5000. I'm telling my kids to do some research about the field they choose and find out if it is on the verge of being disrupted because it could change the trajectory of WHO is actually making the money.

Who did you use?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most "professional" engineers i know are doing very well across the job market. Some are running Fortune 500 companies...some like Rex Tillerson (civil engineer) have done well in business and now entering politics. I think most do well because they are "trained" to assess and solve problems. The skill serves them well in life. It is an excellent ndergraduate degree to earn, even if you elect not to stay in the field.

Actually, very few engineers run the companies. Most are doing well, but not CEO well. A typical engineer will start out at about 65K with a BS or 80K+ with an MS. Same for some sciences. My experience is the good performers will see salary increase by 50% adjusted for inflation every 10 years, assuming the. intellectual growth continues. So, 65K at 23 would be 97.5 at 33, and 146 at 43 and 220 at 53....

In my case, I started with a PhD in physics at 31 earning 50K, with is 80K in 2017 dollars. Now, 20 years later, I earn 180K.

From my experience, you quickly hit a ceiling unless you go management track.

But it's not bad money.

I made $50K working for the government in 2003. I left gov work to make more money and was making $95K in 2009. In 2011, I was making $110K. And now I'm at $140K and managing a small team (5) on a project. Unless I become a functional manager, I pretty much will only see cost of living raises unless I leave my company. Even then, my raise won't be significant.

There are ceilings. If you don't bring in money, 140K is about the ceiling. I bring in money -- a couple of mil a year, so my ceiling is somewhat higher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most "professional" engineers i know are doing very well across the job market. Some are running Fortune 500 companies...some like Rex Tillerson (civil engineer) have done well in business and now entering politics. I think most do well because they are "trained" to assess and solve problems. The skill serves them well in life. It is an excellent ndergraduate degree to earn, even if you elect not to stay in the field.

Actually, very few engineers run the companies. Most are doing well, but not CEO well. A typical engineer will start out at about 65K with a BS or 80K+ with an MS. Same for some sciences. My experience is the good performers will see salary increase by 50% adjusted for inflation every 10 years, assuming the. intellectual growth continues. So, 65K at 23 would be 97.5 at 33, and 146 at 43 and 220 at 53....

In my case, I started with a PhD in physics at 31 earning 50K, with is 80K in 2017 dollars. Now, 20 years later, I earn 180K.

Wow. With a PhD in Physics, you must be incredibly smart and could have succeeded in any field. (I genuinely found high-school-level Physics to be nearly impossible.) Do you ever just wish you'd become a surgeon to make the big bucks? (I'm definitely not smart enough to have a PhD in Physics, but am a lawyer, and like you, I also make $180,000, or closer to $225,000 with profit-sharing and bonus.) Either way, I greatly respect anyone with a PhD in Physics.

=

No desire to have been a Doctor. I would have only done it for the money, which is the wrong reason.

I do not know where my ceiling on salary is. I have no desire to go into management. Instead, I am paid to do what I enjoy. If/when I retire, I will probably continue to do the science, but not worry about what the customers want.

PP with the physics PhD. I should also add I did not accumulate any student loan debt, which can be a big deal. And I would not make a good surgeon, as my hands are not steady.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Finance major with accounting minor. Sit for the CPA exam. Go into I Banking and have the CPA as a fall back plan.

This

+100

I would do the CFA in school to help get into banking. You can do CPA later, maybe at the employers expense if you think you need the accounting fall back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If he's good at math, actuarial science.

No need to major. Just take the tests. That's what they care about.

[Anonymous]

computer science and cybersecurity!

[Anonymous]

You know what the upper middle class does? They get into the best, most elite college they can. Because your college matters a heck of a lot more than your major. If you are a graduate of HYP or AWS, you don't need to major in "finance" (in fact, these elite schools don't offer pre-professional degrees at all), but you can major philosophy and simply sign up for an on campus interview your senior year for companies like Goldman or McKinsey. I graduated from AWS, and I remember signing up to interview at a number of these top firms at the career counseling office. Once you get admitted into these tippy top tier schools, these companies come looking for you--not the other way around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You know what the upper middle class does? They get into the best, most elite college they can. Because your college matters a heck of a lot more than your major. If you are a graduate of HYP or AWS, you don't need to major in "finance" (in fact, these elite schools don't offer pre-professional degrees at all), but you can major philosophy and simply sign up for an on campus interview your senior year for companies like Goldman or McKinsey. I graduated from AWS, and I remember signing up to interview at a number of these top firms at the career counseling office. Once you get admitted into these tippy top tier schools, these companies come looking for you--not the other way around.

What's HYP and AWS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You know what the upper middle class does? They get into the best, most elite college they can. Because your college matters a heck of a lot more than your major. If you are a graduate of HYP or AWS, you don't need to major in "finance" (in fact, these elite schools don't offer pre-professional degrees at all), but you can major philosophy and simply sign up for an on campus interview your senior year for companies like Goldman or McKinsey. I graduated from AWS, and I remember signing up to interview at a number of these top firms at the career counseling office. Once you get admitted into these tippy top tier schools, these companies come looking for you--not the other way around.

What's HYP and AWS?

Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore--these are reliably elite undergraduate institutions (at universities and liberal arts colleges) that have cache in higher socio-economic brackets. If you are from the west coast, I would also throw in Stanford and Pomona.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You know what the upper middle class does? They get into the best, most elite college they can. Because your college matters a heck of a lot more than your major. If you are a graduate of HYP or AWS, you don't need to major in "finance" (in fact, these elite schools don't offer pre-professional degrees at all), but you can major philosophy and simply sign up for an on campus interview your senior year for companies like Goldman or McKinsey. I graduated from AWS, and I remember signing up to interview at a number of these top firms at the career counseling office. Once you get admitted into these tippy top tier schools, these companies come looking for you--not the other way around.

What's HYP and AWS?

Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore--these are reliably elite undergraduate institutions (at universities and liberal arts colleges) that have cache in higher socio-economic brackets. If you are from the west coast, I would also throw in Stanford and Pomona.

And less than 1% of the population will ever graduate from these schools. So, not really relevant to, well, the vast majority of people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You know what the upper middle class does? They get into the best, most elite college they can. Because your college matters a heck of a lot more than your major. If you are a graduate of HYP or AWS, you don't need to major in "finance" (in fact, these elite schools don't offer pre-professional degrees at all), but you can major philosophy and simply sign up for an on campus interview your senior year for companies like Goldman or McKinsey. I graduated from AWS, and I remember signing up to interview at a number of these top firms at the career counseling office. Once you get admitted into these tippy top tier schools, these companies come looking for you--not the other way around.

What's HYP and AWS?

Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore--these are reliably elite undergraduate institutions (at universities and liberal arts colleges) that have cache in higher socio-economic brackets. If you are from the west coast, I would also throw in Stanford and Pomona.

And less than 1% of the population will ever graduate from these schools. So, not really relevant to, well, the vast majority of people.

And only happens if your parents are already wealthy. They filter for social class clues to make sure you are a fit for their wealthy clients. Being smart has little to do with it. I went to HYP from working class, and the paths for my friends from UMC very different from those of us on aid.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2015/09/23/why-are-working-class-kids-less-likely-to-get-elite-jobs-they-study-too-hard-at-college/?utm_term=.64d98efb1a92