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Translating Majors into Careers

Sure, applying to college can be stressful, but once you're in and you've completed all your requirements and graduated, you should be celebrating, right?  Not just yet!  First, you need to find a job.

With student loans looming, recent college graduates have to face the incredibly competitive job market, typically with limited work experience on their resumes. According to a report by the National Association for Colleges and Employers (NACE), students eager for employment may want to consider specific majors during their undergraduate years.

After surveying nearly 10,000 college seniors, NACE reported that computer science majors were more likely than their classmates who had other majors to receive job offers before getting their diplomas.  In fact, nearly 70% of computer science majors had at least one job offer by the time they graduated.  Economics majors were close behind, followed by accounting majors.  On the other end of the spectrum, less than 30% of visual and performing arts majors had a job offer.

Here is the NACE list of majors and the percentage of student applicants who had at least one job offer by the time they graduated.

  • Computer Science: 68.7%
  • Economics: 61.5%
  • Accounting: 61.2%
  • Engineering: 59%
  • Business Administration: 54.3%
  • Sociology/Social Work: 42.5%
  • Mathematics/Statistics: 40.3%
  • Psychology: 39.2%
  • History/Political Science: 38.9%
  • Healthcare: 37.8%
  • Liberal Arts/Humanities: 36.8%
  • Biology: 35.2%
  • Communications/Journalism: 33.8%
  • English: 33%
  • Environmental Science: 30.5%
  • Education: 28.9%
  • Visual & Performing Arts: 27.8%

While this list is interesting - and may be helpful to those students who are still undecided - it does not mean you should give up your pre-med program to learn how to code.  Just as you focused on finding your best fit school when applying to college you should also pursue the career that is going to suit your passions and your skills.

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