美国大学专业哪个“钱景”最光明？

    选择大学专业时，每个人都有自己的理由，当然有一些理由与金钱关系不大，甚至没有关系。乔治城大学教育与劳动力研究中心的一项最新研究显示，即便如此，鉴于参加工作时背负沉重债务的学生人数已创下历史记录，近80%的大学生在选择专业时，至少会在一定程度上考虑相关职业的收入前景。

    所以，能够获得较高收入的商业类和STEM专业（即科学、技术、工程与数学）成为热门也就不足为奇。46%的新毕业生就读于这两类专业。这两个领域的入门级平均年薪至少达到37,000美元，整个职业生涯的平均年薪可达到65,000美元，职业巅峰阶段的平均收入可达到100,000美元甚至更高。

    学士学位能够带来优势。大学毕业生整个职业生涯的平均收入，比仅有高中学历的人要多出100万美元。研究中心主任及该项研究的主要负责人安东尼•P•卡内瓦莱表示：“但并非所有专业都是平等的。你的专业对于未来的就业能力和发展前景，有着巨大的影响。”

    该份报告共分析了137个专业的职业生涯总收入。在薪酬最高的10大本科专业中，仅有一个专业——药剂学与制药学（平均收入113,000美元）——不属于工程类。其他9个专业均为工程类：石油（136,000美元）、冶金（98,000美元）；采矿与矿物（96,000美元）；化工（96,000美元）；电力（93,000美元）；航空航天（90,000美元）、机械（87,000美元）；计算机（87,000美元）和地质或地球物理（87,000美元）。

    收入最低的领域为艺术、教育和社区服务（即便获得研究生学位）。早期幼儿教育在职业中期的平均收入为39,000美元，排在最末。为了说明这一差距，研究人员计算得出一名石油工程师职业生涯中的收入，要比一名幼师多出340万美元。

    但在决定如何度过一生时，金钱显然不是一切。除了薪酬，乔治城大学还研究了137个专业领域的受欢迎程度，并发现了一些有趣的断裂现象。例如，基础教育的平均收入仅有相对一般的43,000美元，但其受欢迎程度却排在前十位。心理学专业的受欢迎程度排在第5位，但其收入排名却较低（137个专业中排名第112位）。人气竞赛中垫底的专业是地质与地球物理工程和冶金工程，虽然这两个专业的职业生涯收入分别排在第10位和第3位。

    想学习戏剧艺术或英国文学？这两个人文科学专业的本科学历，很难给你带来六位数的收入。但卡内瓦莱表示，仔细研究这些数字可以为你的选择提供支持。但他表示，虽然大学专业很重要，但它并不能“决定命运”。有研究显示“人文专业前25%的研究生，其收入超过了某些工程类专业后25%的学生。”（财富中文网）

    译者：刘进龙/汪皓

    审校：任文科

    People pick a college major for all kinds of reasons, of course, some of which have little or nothing to do with money. Even so, and especially now that record numbers of graduates enter the workforce carrying a heavy load of debt, about 80% of college students choose a major based at least in part on how well the resulting career will pay, says a newstudy from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce.

    No wonder, then, that business and STEM majors, both of which lead to relatively high salaries, are the most common. Accounting for 46% of all new grads, the two fields pay, on average, at least $37,000 at the entry level and an average salary of $65,000 over the course of a career, often reaching a median of $100,000 or more during someone’s peak earning years.

    Any bachelor’s degree confers an edge. College graduates earn, on average, $1 million more over their lifetimes than people with only a high school diploma. But “all degrees are not created equal,” notes Anthony P. Carnevale, director of the Center and lead author of the study. “Your major has a large effect on your ability to get a job and work your way up.”

    In all, the report analyzed lifetime earnings for 137 majors. Of the 10 undergraduate degrees that pay the most, only one — pharmacy and pharmaceutical science (median salary: $113,000) — is not in engineering. The rest are in nine engineering fields: petroleum ($136,000); metallurgical ($98,000); mining and mineral ($96,000); chemical ($96,000); electrical ($93,000); aerospace ($90,000); mechanical ($87,000); computer ($87,000); and geological or geophysical ($87,000).

    The worst-paying fields are in the arts, education, and community service (even with a graduate degree). Early-childhood education, at an average salary of $39,000 in mid-career, pays the least. To illustrate the difference, the researchers calculated that a petroleum engineer is likely to earn $3.4 million more, over the course of his or her working life, than a kindergarten teacher.

    But, when it comes to deciding how to spend a lifetime, money clearly isn’t everything. Besides how well they pay, the Georgetown study also looked at the popularity of all 137 fields, and found some interesting disconnects. Elementary education, for instance, makes the Top 10 in popularity, despite topping out at a relatively modest $43,000 in median pay. Psychology rates fifth in popularity despite its low rank in salary (No. 112 out of 137). Dead last in the popularity contest: geological and geophysical engineering and metallurgical engineering, despite ranking No. 10 and No. 3 in lifetime earnings.

    Want to major in theater arts or English literature? The odds of ever making six figures with a bachelor’s in the humanities may be against you, but Carnevale says a close reading of the numbers could support your choice anyway. Important as it is, a college major “isn’t destiny,” he observes, adding that the research shows that “the top 25% of humanities and liberal arts graduates earn more than the bottom 25%” of people who major in some kind of engineering.