Сollege majors list is essential for educators, graduates, students of high school, social workers, and parents. It is also vital to people who have decided to change career, which is a common thing among millennials. Here are two questions to ask the university or college before applying:
- How long will it take to graduate? More and more universities have six-year study program instead of four-year lately. It means more debts, more spendings on living while being a student, a long time before having a job.
- What is the post-graduate placement rate? The percentage shows the placement rate during the year of half a year after graduation. Note that in five years the situation may change drastically.
Making this decision is tough, it takes time, efforts, research, money on traveling to the potential place of study, and discovering personal traits. The last one may become the most important one. However, there are trends and demand on each specialization. Adjusting your skills to one of them is a smart and safe decision.
Applied mathematics
A few years ago programming was a perspective and attractive specialization to many students who were skilled in mathematics, logic, physics, and other non-humanity disciplines. The modern reality has changed drastically. What is right about applied mathematics, it opens the door to many different professional paths. The most common and needed are a data scientist, data architect, and other data developers. It is connected with a fast-growing machine learning field and methods of proceeding data. Beside this, applied mathematics specialists can find a job in any other area including water digesting systems.
Chemical engineering
The unemployment rate for chemical engineers is promising (4-7%). It is one of the top college degrees today, and it won’t change in the next five or ten years due to the high demand in the field of engineering. The median income is 75 thousand US dollars. The major includes designing processes to transport, transform, and produce materials. It involves physics, chemistry, biology, and math. If you find all of these majors exiting, there is an excellent opportunity to combine them in a single specialization. The further career opportunities include biotechnology and pharmacy, environmental field, semi-construction and electronics (microchips for IBM and Intel), industrial chemicals (P&G), food production (Nestle), petroleum industry (shell, Exxon), alternative energy, and many other fields.
Biomedical sciences or genetics research
Elon Musk highlighted genetic engineering as one of the most perspective and dangerous specializations in one of his interviews. Universities offer different majors to cover genetic engineering including biomedical sciences and genetic research. It also includes such exciting courses as neurobiology, human, organic and plant genetics, macromolecules, molecular medicine, and organic chemistry, and other. The median wage is 84 thousand US dollars and can reach 140 thousand. The job growth is well about average. The most exciting job offers come from research labs. It is the chance to create something that can change the world drastically.
Pharmacology
The unemployment rate is 3%, and median wages is $105,000. Pharmacology explains mechanisms of action of drugs. Hospitals and research centers usually post the most exciting and prospective job offers. Here you can apply all your creativity to the process and be on the community of creators and innovators. Other career opportunities include clinical research, product or process development scientist, regulatory affair officer, toxicologist, or other. There will also be an option to become a science writer at the community of professional assignment writers, lecturer, or medical sales representatives.
Medical technology
If you are looking for the opportunity to work in a laboratory and have a creative job connected with innovative technologies, medical technology is one of the best college degrees that can offer this opportunity. It combines chemistry with biology and clinical laboratories. The unemployment rate is 2-4% and $50,000 in salary. The beginning of a career path can be a medical assistant who is responsible for doctor’s orders. It requires administrative skills and has a perspective of becoming a promotion from a hospital.
Aviation technology and aeronautics
The area covers both opportunities – becoming a pilot and gain a job offer in the engineering side. The study program of many universities offers good majors that lead to a perspective on career opportunities and a good salary which is around $60,000. The unemployment rate is 4%, and it won’t change by 2020. If you are excited about flights and aeronautics, this is the stable way to have a safe and satisfying future.
Applied linguistics
Many people associate linguistics with knowing languages and becoming a tutor. However, applied linguistics is much more excited. We all know Siri, Cortana, Alexa, and other assistants who have speech recognition technologies. Applied linguists are the ones who implement these technologies. The study program covers languages knowledge, the theory of discourse, neurobiology, and programming. The theory of algorithms is one of the important subjects as well. Applied linguistics is a perfect choice for those who are excited about languages and have a technical background.
Construction manager
The specialization covers a wide range of job opportunities and study programs. A construction manager is a leader of a team of leaders. If you are excited about architecture but have definite leadership qualities, then it is a perfect choice. You will be involved in the process from the start until the end and will see how beautiful constructions appear under your control. You’ll be navigating through dealing with tough clients and figuring out the best way to get construction leads for your company, but it’s very much worth it on payday. The unemployment rate is 5%, the salary is at least $50,000.
Communications
If you still ask yourself what a major in college is and have a humanity mindset, you need to study communications. The exciting trip through the study will take you to the verbal and non-verbal types of communication, business intelligence, audience reactions, marketing, advertising, and many others. The disadvantage of the specialization is the absence of clear statistics due to the wide variety of career opportunities in politics, public relations, media, social services, education, human recourses, and other.
Psychology and psychotherapy
Every corporation has a team of professional psychologists to work with clients and employees. Psychology covers a wide range of job opportunities as well. However, it can be classified as a traditional specialization which is always needed. If you are excited about human minds, emotions, perceptions, cognition, mental disorders, and human behavior, it is recommended to have a classical education and have a great career choice after graduation.
Walter Hurley is a professional researcher and writer at EduBirdie. He specializes in education analytics. His research works helped hundreds of students to make the right choice and have a great career.
