- The least valuable college majors may land you a dream job – but not your dream pay.
- Bankrate recently took a look at the least valuable college majors. The top 10 were in the arts, and the creative and linguistics fields.
- However, that doesn’t mean that obtaining a degree in a creative space isn’t a wise investment.
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Sometimes, your dream job doesn’t always align with dream prospects and dream pay. And that depends on what degree you graduate with from college.
Financial education company Bankrate recently took a look at the most and least valuable college majors based on data from the US Census Bureau American Community Survey. Using weighted data, they determined the employment and unemployment rates and incomes for graduates for their first year out of college across 162 majors that employed at least 15,000 people. They also considered the number of college graduates who held a higher secondary degree.
The median income for all degree holders observed in the study was $55,000, and the average unemployment rate was 2.8%. With the most valuable college majors in the STEM fields, it’s not all too unpredictable that the least valuable college majors fall into the arts and creative fields.
But that doesn’t mean graduates with degrees in those fields are doomed.
"Obtaining a creative arts degree, or miscellaneous arts degree or being in any sort of creative space is a terrific investment, and I would strongly advocate for it," Philip Olson, who holds a theater and dance degree, told Bankrate. "I would caveat that to say that if you get a degree in that space, expect to use it in a nontraditional way if you want to be successful."
Below, see the top 10 least valuable college majors.
10. Cosmetology services and culinary arts
Average income: $35,000
Unemployment rate: 3.3%
9. Mass media
Average income: $40,000
Unemployment rate: 6.0%
8. Music
Average income: $36,000
Unemployment rate: 3.1%
7. Miscellaneous fine arts
Average income: $38,000
Unemployment rate: 5.7%
6. Film, video, and photographic arts
Average income: $37,000
Unemployment rate: 6.5%
5. Fine arts
Average income: $37,000
Unemployment rate: 4.8%
4. Linguistics and comparative language and literature
Average income: $40,000
Unemployment rate: 3.9%
3. Composition and rhetoric
Average income: $37,800
Unemployment rate: 4.4%
2. Visual and performing Arts
Average income: $32,000
Unemployment rate: 4.1%
1. Drama and theater arts
Average income: $35,500
Unemployment rate: 5.2%