Wow, I didn't know the assistant manager at Starbucks got paid that much!

I guess it's worth it. Go take Philosophy.

It's fun to make fun of philosophy majors, but the point of undergrad is to teach you how to think. If you want to be technically proficient in some field or other, that's great, but a slavish focus on so-called "marketable skills" probably makes you less competitive in the long run.

Why?

As you can see from the replies so far, submitter, the techies don't care about the data. Those liberal arts majors they despise so much are typically more socially successful and appear to be quite happy. So the techies need something on them. They either deride their lack of intelligence (usually by pointing out an only average level of computer proficiency) or mock them for working at Starbucks or McDonald's or whatever.

A technical education is financially rewarding and a worthwhile end in itself. It's a shame so many of those who pursue it need to be such a dick about it.

filth: It's fun to make fun of philosophy majors, but the point of undergrad is to teach you how to think. If you want to be technically proficient in some field or other, that's great, but a slavish focus on so-called "marketable skills" probably makes you less competitive in the long run.

That's why most undergrad degrees make you take classes in English, Philosophy, Communications, Public Speaking, etc. as well as whatever is required by your major.

Kome: Why?

Philosophy majors in the 10th and 25th career percentiles do fairly poorly compared to other majors, but they jump significantly in the ranks in the 75th and 90th percentiles. the same holds true for poli sci and international relations majors.

That suggests to me that a significant number of those majors go off to get graduate degrees in other areas, namely law and business.

Kome: Why?

law school. Of course some chems go to med school.

But I don't know if this list means "people who have this degree" or "people who ONLY have this degree", so maybe philosophy majors who go get a JD aren't counted.

Tr0mBoNe: I guess it's worth it. Go take Philosophy.

It's always worth learning how to think, even if it's not officially part of your degree path.

The data are labeled as people who ONLY have a BA/BS in the field. The reason for the top end of the non-technical degrees showing so much salary growth may be because the population that pursues such degrees is bimodal: you have some people who get degrees in these areas and are truly visionary/transformative thinkers, the majority, though, got the degree because it was easier/more fun than the alternatives.

On the other hand, the technical/science degrees teach a relatively standardized body of knowledge and skills which makes these degrees, at the BA/BS level a relative commodity: you can more or less interchange early career engineers for one another (esp. when they came from the same school or schools of similar reputation). The rise in pay at mid career for people who never go back for an advanced degree in a technical field is relatively limited. An MEng is almost required in lots of companies to move up the ranks. As for basic science degrees like biology or chemistry, you need at least an MA if not higher to get any job that uses that skill set and pays. Nursing is the same way: the pay doesn't rise much if you stick to a BSN, but if you go back for an MSN and become an NP your pay can more than double.

Tables like this are interesting, but meaningless without context.

My Philosophy education and educator from Auburn was written up in the NY Times recently (new window). I am nearly 2 years out of the fine program living and working in California doing marketing and making mid 60s. I am getting ready to go back to school for an MBA.

/So glad I didn't waste my time with undergrad business major

liberalish: Kome: Why?

law school. Of course some chems go to med school.

But I don't know if this list means "people who have this degree" or "people who ONLY have this degree", so maybe philosophy majors who go get a JD aren't counted.

The article says the survey is of people with only a bachelor's degree.

/philosophy major
//law school grad
///underemployed

Outshined_One: Kome: Why?

Philosophy majors in the 10th and 25th career percentiles do fairly poorly compared to other majors, but they jump significantly in the ranks in the 75th and 90th percentiles. the same holds true for poli sci and international relations majors.

That suggests to me that a significant number of those majors go off to get graduate degrees in other areas, namely law and business.

Some training in the liberal arts may have improved your reading comprehension to the point where you'd have noticed that the data is based on a survey of people with only a bachelor's degree.

ne2d: liberalish: Kome: Why?

law school. Of course some chems go to med school.

But I don't know if this list means "people who have this degree" or "people who ONLY have this degree", so maybe philosophy majors who go get a JD aren't counted.

The article says the survey is of people with only a bachelor's degree.

/philosophy major
//law school grad
///underemployed

Ahhhh. Reading is your friend. Thanks.

Well duh! Supply and demand. There are more jobs for Phil. majors.

After all, there is a much bigger market for serving fries than creating them.

/DRTFA

2 Points that I would like to make.

1) As the owner of a math degree, I am woefully undercompensated.

2) Having just an undergraduate degree these days is like having a highschool diploma was 30 years ago.

paging czarangelus...

Wow. I'll be likely making 56.3K at midcareer. Like I ain't depressed enough already.

Chemical engineering median FTW

Being a physicians assistant I may only have 23.4% to look at. But starting at $74,300.00 kinda makes up for that.

/Getting a kick out of these numbers.
//Don't actually make that much :(

Makes me happy. Course I still suck, philosophy degree or not.

Gods, I'm underemployed. Happy though. Hell, yes, I'm happy, and currently makin it, so I ain't complaining.

Only a bachelor's in chemistry? Yea, good luck with that.

Huzzah for graduate school!

/ME doesn't look to shabby on that list

welp how often do sceince students talk crap aobut art/phi/eng students compared to the number of times you see art/eng students talking crap about sceince students

They don't say what the vocation actually is.

You can learn and discuss Philosophy on your own, too.

as someone with a major in Philosophy, and a minor in Chemistry, I'm really getting a kick...

But seriously, that was my degree. Philosophy has the highest acceptance rate of any major into both Law and Med school, or at least it did ten years ago. As another poster said, it teaches you how to think. I do quite well, I now am in sales for a large IT company, and make more than most business majors I know.

Because People in power are Stupid: 2 Points that I would like to make.

1) As the owner of a math degree, I am woefully undercompensated.

2) Having just an undergraduate degree these days is like having a highschool diploma was 30 years ago.

I can somewhat empathize with you, my Sister also has a Math degree (Statistics). Right now she teaches HS Algebra; while she is happy with what she does, she would really like to go back to grad school and do something more worthwhile.

She is thinking about Bio-statistics, it's the only program she can get into right now that is offered at USF and still maintain her job. I keep pushing her towards an Actuary or Industrial Statistics, but she doesn't want to move out of State.

You really need to interview a random subset. Not just the ones that still have a job or you find walking down Wall Street.

Outshined_One: Kome: Why?

Philosophy majors in the 10th and 25th career percentiles do fairly poorly compared to other majors, but they jump significantly in the ranks in the 75th and 90th percentiles. the same holds true for poli sci and international relations majors.

That suggests to me that a significant number of those majors go off to get graduate degrees in other areas, namely law and business.

No. FTFA: Your parents might have worried when you chose Philosophy or International Relations as a major. But a year-long survey of 1.2 million people with only a bachelor's degree by PayScale Inc. shows that graduates in these subjects earned 103.5% and 97.8% more, respectively, about 10 years post-commencement. Majors that didn't show as much salary growth include Nursing and Information Technology.

Outshined_One: Kome: Why?

Philosophy majors in the 10th and 25th career percentiles do fairly poorly compared to other majors, but they jump significantly in the ranks in the 75th and 90th percentiles. the same holds true for poli sci and international relations majors.

That suggests to me that a significant number of those majors go off to get graduate degrees in other areas, namely law and business.

Or they are well-connected. I know a bunch of useless business, philosophy, etc., majors who make a ton of money because they work at daddy's or daddy's friend's companies.

/not saying all business and philosophy majors are useless
//just these guys

So what is their point?? Illiterate sports stars make millions a year. Making money obviously doesn't necessarily mean smart or useful.

/Approves



/Does not approve

Oh yeah and:
Are they throwing out the zero values?
Because if there were say 10 datapoints and they had the values of:
0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 20000, 20000, 50000, 90000, and "one brazillion" the median value of that job would be $20k
A significant percentage being unemployed created a sink of datapoints which can lower the median by a huge number.
Of course statistically this is probably eliminated by the large number of datapoints in the first place.
But it would still drag down the number significantly.

BA in Philosophy here as well. In interviews, I just say that I effectively majored in critical thinking skills and analytical reasoning.

Sad thing is, I -liked- the esoteric navel-gazing metaphysics more than this actual useful stuff... heh.

the bottom line is that engineering more or less dominates the charts with only a BA.

happy I chose welding engineering.
the skilled trades are hot right now
\ I wonder what that data woudl look like for Blue collar workers?

Last year's worst job, Assistant Crack Whore, has been replaced by a new worst job: Crack Whore Trainee

Kome: Why?

I believe the correct response is "Why not?"

/I think, therefore I am (paid more).
//Was a philosophy major.
///to boost my mediocre Biology GPA.

This chart is interesting but it would be nice if they would give more data.

One thing that should be emphasized is that they are talking about the median salary, not mean. If you look at different percentiles what you see is that while there are philosophy majors at the very top who are making more than even the highest paid chemistry majors the philosophy majors at the bottom are making much less than even the lowest paid chemistry majors.

What I gather from this is as follows, and I could be completely wrong: A chemistry degree is going to prepare your for a career in science and not much else, and compensation scales for those careers are fairly well laid out; you'll probably find a good job and make good money, but you aren't going to be rich without further education to prepare you for some kind of senior role.

On the other hand a philosophy degree, especially from a good school, could potentially open the door to some high paying positions with the right company. However there is also a strong likelihood that it will get you nowhere and you'll flipping burgers.

In short - most chemistry majors will do pretty well for themselves, a few philosophy majors will do really well, but a lot of them will go nowhere.

Woot. Go Poli Sci. I think it is skewed though, because a lot of Poli Sci and Philosophy majors end up at law school...

Kome: Why?

Win.

hitchking: Outshined_One: Kome: Why?

Philosophy majors in the 10th and 25th career percentiles do fairly poorly compared to other majors, but they jump significantly in the ranks in the 75th and 90th percentiles. the same holds true for poli sci and international relations majors.

That suggests to me that a significant number of those majors go off to get graduate degrees in other areas, namely law and business.

Some training in the liberal arts may have improved your reading comprehension to the point where you'd have noticed that the data is based on a survey of people with only a bachelor's degree.



/English major, philosophy minor
//owns an IT company now employing 15, skewing the curve up

hitchking: A technical education is financially rewarding and a worthwhile end in itself. It's a shame so many of those who pursue it need to be such a dick about it.

I agree. I think this is the first pro-philosophy thread in Fark history.

bimalc: ...you have some people who get degrees in these areas and are truly visionary/transformative thinkers, the majority, though, got the degree because it was easier/more fun than the alternatives.

Hah. It isn't easy if you care and have good professors. This is true with any major- not all colleges are created equal. You should have seen how many people admitted in Ethics class to taking a PHI course because it was "easy" then failed the tests. Then came to me begging for help.

//B.A., Philosophy
//Engineers and Physics majors never have any trouble in PHI classes...

Sometimes when submitting a link, you just know it's going to get accepted...

That said,

No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.

But I somehow doubt lots of people are in philosophy for the money.

As with most things, location location location.

I doubt that many philosophy jobs are to be had in Battle Creek, MI (where salaries are lower). I'll bet a BUNCH of chem majors work there.

Reverse it, and I'll bet the number of chem majors working in DC (where salaries are higher) is pretty low as compared to philosophy majors.

Kome: Why?

Yeah! Learning is for dumb poeple!

hovsm: So what is their point?? Illiterate sports stars make millions a year. Making money obviously doesn't necessarily mean smart or useful.



It soothes the butthurt.

Most of the guys I knew from college who majored in Philosophy went on to professional or graduate programs like medicine or law. A few went into seminary.

/Philosophy minor
//went to law school and later biz school

If you're in chemistry for the money, you're doing it wrong.

Research fields aren't about how much money you can get people to give you for personal use, it's about how much money in resources they give you to play around with to publish papers on.

Also, why would you stop a chemistry degree at the BS if you actually wanted to do Chem for a living? It's not like engineering, where you're educted immediately in practical applications. It's a research field. Most of those who stop at the BS are probably sick of it and want to do a career in something only marginally related. Which is fine, you've got the math and general knowledge to do probably 90% of jobs.

Chemistry majors always have the high demand market of meth cooking to fall back on, or to supplement their income.

This liberal arts major needs a science major to help him figure out the number of excuses in this thread so far.

Important: Do not confuse the effect with the cause.

A philosophy degree does not lead to success. Rather, certain people who are inherently likely to succeed due to native attributes of intelligence and logical thought also tend to be attracted to the study of philosophy.

Those people are likely to succeed regardless of degree.

I'd be interested to know how many of the people they polled are actually doing work directly connected to their degree.

Take the philosophy grads, for example. What jobs are they doing with only a Bachelor's in Philosophy that their median salary after 10 years is $81k?