Follow Your (Pipe) Dreams!

     Majoring in something like philosophy or fine arts is like majoring in applying for welfare. Don't get me wrong, I think it's great people are pursuing their dreams, It's just a shame nobody told them along the way they were pipe dreams. As someone looking to design video games as my dream job, I can take great respite in knowing I won't have to worry about finding a place in the city after I graduate, I can recede into my parents' basement, jobless, while the real world reminds me that majoring in 3-D animation and basic computer science was a poor decision.

Do The Math. No Seriously, Do It, You'll Make More Money That Way

 
     But why? Why is it so difficult to secure a well-paying job that also respects my creative interests in the largest entertainment industry in the world? I wanted to find out which majors paid the most right out of college, thankfully Discover has a nifty site with all of this lovely information. Unfortunately I was't all too surprised with my findings. Many of the highest paying majors were those in the engineering category, or some other form of extremely intense mathematics. The list that follows is the top ten paying jobs out of college (on average) based on major.

1. Petroleum Engineering: $89,000

2. Computer Science: $53,800

3. Nursing: $53,300

4. Applied Mathematics: $52,200

5. Physics: $50,800

6. Management Information Systems (MIS): $49,600

7. Construction Management: $49,200

8. Computer Information Systems (CIS): $49,000

9. Mathematics & Statistics: $48,900

10. Computer Programming: $48,000



     After reading this information, I was still understandably confused as to why these jobs were higher paying than design degrees. After all, anyone can input a bunch of numbers on a screen, but art requires an intangible quality. Yet, the prior is far more monetarily rewarded than the latter. This leads me to my next question. How do people in these career paths feel about their jobs? How happy are they?