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Entrepreneur
10 hours ago
- Business
- Entrepreneur
College Majors and Careers That Make the Most Money: Report
As the price of an undergraduate degree continues to climb, many college students want to know which paths will bring financial security. A typical student graduating from high school in 2025 could take on an estimated $40,000 in student loan debt before they finish their college education, and interest rates on undergraduate federal student loans are the highest they've been in more than 10 years, Nerdwallet reported. The price tag that comes with a college degree has ballooned steadily over the past several decades — with a staggering rise in the past 15 years. Between 2000 and 2022, average tuition and fees increased by 60%, from $9,204 to $14,688 per year, and those costs spiked 13% in just 12 years between 2010 and 2022 alone, according to BestColleges. Related: These Are the College Majors With the Lowest Unemployment Rates — and Philosophy Ranks Higher Than Computer Science Today's college graduates can expect to spend $153,080 by the end of their undergraduate education, per Student Choice, an organization that partners with more than 300 credit unions to facilitate student lending solutions. But which college majors — and the careers they make possible for new graduates — provide the highest return on students' investment? Student Choice examined data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to pinpoint the median earnings for the top 20 most popular college majors in the U.S. The analysis assumed five years in the workforce and four years spent paying the average annual cost of college. Related: Goldman Sachs CIO Says Coders Should Take Philosophy Classes — Here's Why According to the report, engineering emerged as the degree with the highest five-year return on investment at 326.6%, and computer science/technology came in close second at 310.3%. Computer and information systems managers and advertising, promotions and marketing managers snagged the top spots for careers with the highest five-year return on investment, at 553.7% and 511.4%, respectively, per the data. Related: These 3 Professions Are Most Likely to Vanish in the Next 20 Years Due to AI, According to a New Report Take a look at Student Choice's infographic below for the full picture of its report on the majors and careers offering the highest return on investment for the price of a college education:
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Where Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and 13 Other CEOs Went To College
One common thread among the world's most successful and inspiring entrepreneurs and business leaders is that many went to college — even if only for a short while. For some of the world's top business leaders, college shaped their lives and paid off in building their wealth. Be Aware: Discover More: Here's where the biggest names in business went to college. College: Princeton University Jeff Bezos, executive chairman at Amazon, is the second-richest person in the world with a net worth of $195.4 billion, according to Forbes. The son of a single mother, Bezos earned early admission to Princeton, originally intending to practice theoretical physics. After graduation, however, he realized the power of the internet and began selling books online, a small business venture that grew into the world's most powerful online retailer. Explore More: View Next: College: University of Pennsylvania, University of Nebraska and Columbia University Warren Buffett followed his father's advice and went to the University of Pennsylvania's prestigious Wharton School of Business — but only reluctantly. The man who has gone on to become the 'Oracle of Omaha,' arguably the most successful investor of all time, completed his undergraduate education at the University of Nebraska before attending graduate school at Columbia University. Despite many years of schooling, Buffett doesn't think college is for everyone and doesn't base his hiring decisions on degrees, according to CNBC. For You: College: Queen's University and the University of Pennsylvania Elon Musk, co-founder of Tesla and SpaceX, is the richest man in the world. According to Forbes' Real Time Billionaires list, Musk has a net worth of $367 billion. Musk's educational background includes studying at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario and later transferring to the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated with a degree in physics and economics in 1995. College: Auburn University and Duke University Tim Cook earned a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering from Auburn University and an MBA from Duke University, where he was a Fuqua Scholar. Today, he's the CEO of Apple. Before reaching the executive level at Apple, Cook worked for Compaq and IBM. College: University of Southern California Marc Benioff was a pioneer of cloud computing and now serves as the CEO of Salesforce. He earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Southern California in 1986. He enjoyed college so much that he never severed ties — he currently serves on the school's board of trustees. Trending Now: College: Ithaca College Before he saved Disney, Iger graduated from Ithaca College in 1973, where he cut his teeth in one of the toughest gigs in show business. Intent on landing a television career, Iger spent five hard winter months working as a local weatherman in notoriously frigid Ithaca, New York. College: Tufts University and Harvard University Harvard graduate Jamie Dimon runs America's largest bank as the CEO of JPMorgan Chase. He's famous — or infamous — for protecting that bank by dumping $12 billion in subprime mortgages in 2006, which helped the bank survive the Great Recession. Dimon graduated from Tufts University in 1978 and later enrolled in Harvard Business School. He parlayed the MBA he earned there in 1982 into a billion-dollar career. College: Kettering University and Stanford University Mary T. Barra — listed by Forbes as one of the world's most powerful women — became the first woman to lead a major automaker when she was named CEO of General Motors in 2014. She graduated from Kettering University in 1985 — it was called General Motors Institute then — and earned an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1990. Find Out: College: Stanford University and University of Pennsylvania Sundar Pichai interviewed with Google on the day the company launched Gmail in 2004. Now he's the company's CEO and the CEO of its parent company, Alphabet, after Google's co-founder Larry Page stepped down in December 2019. The metallurgical engineering student did so well at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur that he won a scholarship to Stanford. After earning his Master of Science, he earned an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. College: University of Wisconsin and University of Chicago Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is credited with moving the software giant away from a failed mobile strategy and toward winning endeavors such as augmented reality, cloud computing and the purchase of LinkedIn. Nadella has two master's degrees. He earned a Master of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin and an MBA from the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business. College: Oregon State University and Stanford University Nvidia co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang is the leader of a company that pioneered computer gaming in the 1990s and invented the GPU card. He earned a BSEE degree from Oregon State University and, like so many others on this list, a master's degree from Stanford. See More: College: Dartmouth College and Stanford Graduate School of Business John Donahoe took over as the CEO of Nike on Jan. 13, 2020, to October 2024, and although he didn't have experience in the apparel industry, he's a whiz in the tech world. He was the president and CEO of ServiceNow, an enterprise cloud computing company, and was the president and CEO of eBay from 2008 to 2015. Currently, Donahoe is the chairman of the board of directors of PayPal. Donahoe earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Stanford University. College: University of Massachusetts-Amherst, MIT, Fairleigh Dickinson University and Harvard University The former CEO of T-Mobile, John Legere, has more than 30 years of experience in the telecommunications industry — and he built his career on an impressive academic resume. According to his UMass alumni page, he earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from UMass Amherst, a master's degree as an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University. He then completed Harvard Business School's Management Development Program. College: New York University and Missouri University of Science and Technology After a brief stint at the Missouri University of Science and Technology, Jack Dorsey transferred to NYU, where he dropped out. At the age of 29, he was out of work, living in a tiny apartment and unable to find a job — even at a local shoe store. He dabbled in fashion, and then the self-taught coder went on to found Twitter. That final act made him one of the richest CEOs in Silicon Valley. Currently, Dorsey is the CEO of Square. View Next: College: Harvard University Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has weathered a scandalous — yet financially successful — past few years. But in 2004, he was a computer programmer and a recent Harvard dropout focused on spreading his emerging online platform from Harvard to campuses across the country and, eventually, the world. Dropping out of college hasn't prevented Zuckerberg from becoming one of the richest people in the world. Heather Taylor contributed to the reporting for this piece. More From GOBankingRates Surprising Items People Are Stocking Up On Before Tariff Pains Hit: Is It Smart? 3 Reasons Retired Boomers Shouldn't Give Their Kids a Living Inheritance (And 2 Reasons They Should) This article originally appeared on Where Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and 13 Other CEOs Went To College Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Is college worth it? See which majors offer the highest return on your investment.
Americans currently owe nearly $1.8 trillion in student loan debt, but despite rising costs, going to college is a decision that can give you one of the best returns on your investment. The size of that return, however, can depend on what you major in. Degrees in engineering, math and computers, and business and economics provide the largest annual return, according to data compiled by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. On average, a college graduate earns $32,000 more in a year than a worker with only a high school diploma, according to a new report from Federal Reserve economists. The payoff on a college degree stands near its all-time high, the economists report in an April 16 post from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. If you think of college as an investment, the return on that investment has held steady over the last three decades at 12% to 13% a year. 'I'd love to get that return on my savings account,' said Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, a nonprofit that represents college leaders. This year's graduates are eager to earn, with 62% reporting the most important aspect of a job is a good salary, according to Monster's 2025 State of the Graduate Report. Of 2025 graduates surveyed, only 12% said they'd be willing to accept an unpaid internship and 49% said they would never accept a job that doesn't come with a competitive salary and benefits, up 5% from last year. The majority of new graduates surveyed plan to pursue careers in some traditionally lucrative fields including business, healthcare, computer technology, and finance. However, their ability to land jobs in those industries and earn a high paycheck can depend on what they studied and how long they stayed in school. Career experts agree dream jobs and large salaries don't always come right away. 'It's a hard world out there for a lot of people who are not just highly educated, but have built these careers and have a trusted resume of previous experience. It's hard for them to get a job,' Emily Levine, executive vice president at recruitment firm Career Group Companies, told USA TODAY. 'If you want to get a job somewhat quickly and start contributing and earning money, it most likely won't be your dream job. And that's okay." If the goal of college is to earn more money, then the New York Fed report suggests academia is doing a good job. The analysis found that a typical college graduate earns about $80,000 a year, compared with $47,000 for a worker with a high school diploma. The college wage premium tends to grow throughout a career. 'Judging the value of a college degree is not about your first job. It's about the advantage you get over your working life,' said Jaison Abel, head of microeconomics at the New York Fed. College isn't worth it for everyone. The return on investment is lower for students who take more than four years to finish, the economists found. Some majors yield a higher annual return than others: Around 18% for math, computers and engineering; 14% for health sciences; and 8% for liberal arts. 'There's almost no wage premium for the bottom 25% of graduates,' those with the lowest lifetime earnings, said Richard Deitz, an economic policy advisor at the New York Fed. Many Americans feel college is too expensive. A 2024 report from the New America think tank found that more than 80% of Americans think the cost of college is the biggest factor that stops students from enrolling. 'I think that when people talk about, 'Is college worth it?', what they're upset about is the cost,' said Phillip Levine, a Wellesley College economist who studies college pricing. 'They have this impression in their head of skyrocketing college costs, and they don't have an impression of skyrocketing benefits.' The New York Fed report comes at a moment of crisis in higher education. The Trump administration is threatening billions of dollars in federal funding to elite universities over their policies on diversity, equity and inclusion. Trump officials also accuse the higher education sector of abusing the student loan system, invoking perennial complaints about runaway tuition and spiraling debt. In a April 21 Wall Street Journal op-ed, new Education Secretary Linda McMahon accused the industry of 'hiking tuition and piling up multibillion-dollar endowments while students graduate six figures in the red.' The DEI broadsides resonate with Trump's base. Half of Republicans have 'little or no' confidence in higher education, compared with 12% of Democrats, according to Gallup polling. Among those who lack faith in academia, the most common complaint is that colleges harbor political agendas. Concerns run from liberal bias to rising costs to lackluster career preparation. A 2024 report from Pew Research Center found that only 22% of Americans believe college is worth the cost for a student who must take out loans. Only 1 in 4 said a college degree is very important for getting a good-paying job. Academic leaders say Americans focus too much on the sticker price of college, which now exceeds $70,000 a year in tuition and fees at the priciest schools. 'The sticker price is a number that every college and university needs to post on their web page by law. It's the easiest number to find,' Levine said. But few students pay the sticker price. The actual price of college for most students is much lower. The average net price in tuition and fees for an in-state student at a four-year public college plummeted by 40% in a decade, after inflation, from $4,140 in 2014-15 to an estimated $2,480 in 2024-25, according to a recent report from the College Board. At private nonprofit colleges, average tuition and fees have dwindled from $18,680 in 2014 to an estimated $16,510 in 2024, after accounting for inflation and aid. As for student loans: Roughly half of students at public universities completed their degrees without debt in the 2022-23 academic year, compared with about two-fifths of students a decade earlier, the College Board found. Among all graduates with loans, the balance averaged $29,300 in the 2022-23 academic year, down from $34,800 a decade earlier, adjusted for inflation. 'The student loan crisis is overblown,' Mitchell of the American Council on Education said. Mitchell, Levine and others say colleges need to do a better job of communicating with the public about price. For many years, Levine said, academic leaders have been reluctant to share the sort of data compiled by the College Board: The actual price of attendance for a typical student, based on family income and wealth. That stance is changing. Consider Princeton University: Annual tuition, fees, housing and food at Princeton averages $82,650. But the average student receives $72,000 in grant aid. Thus, the average net cost of a year at Princeton is $10,650. Princeton offers those numbers in plain-spoken fashion on its website. Many other colleges do not. Another selective school, Washington University in Saint Louis, has partnered with Levine to offer an 'Instant Net Price Estimator,' which gives a ballpark estimate of college costs based on household income and siblings attending college. Levine provides similar estimates for other schools on a site called MyinTuition. 'We need somebody smarter than I to figure out a way to communicate price that is encouraging rather than discouraging,' Mitchell said. 'And we haven't gotten there yet.' Contributing: Rachel Barber This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Here are the best college majors to get a high-paying job Sign in to access your portfolio
