Monday, 4 April 2016

The 50 most employable degrees 2016

College student studying at computer
Choosing a major is not something to take lightly. There are many factors to weigh when deciding which degree program is the right fit for you and your professional goals. After all, college is an investment. And like any investment, it's important to have a good idea of what you stand to gain before taking the plunge.
With that in mind, OnlineDegrees.com launched an investigation to find which majors offered students the best potential return on their educational investment. In an effort to help students get the most "bang for their buck" when it comes to getting a degree, we ranked every degree field in the U.S. based on a number of cost-benefit factors. The goal was to find which degrees had the best employment opportunities in today's economic climate while still remaining on the affordable end of higher education.
Degrees that fared best were those with relatively low tuition costs, but a high number of related careers with good employment projections and high average salaries. Some majors offered great growth rates and low tuition, but lost points because they're only available at a select number of schools, making them harder for the average student to obtain.
It's no surprise that tech and business majors continue to dominant top positions. However, shifts in the economic landscape have contributed to some interesting changes since last year's study. Old standbys like entrepreneurship and network administration have fallen out of the top 10, while emerging fields such as geotechnical engineering and informatics are making their list debut this year. Check out the entire top 50 ranking, as well as a detailed breakdown of our methodology, below.

Methodology

We ranked 1,248 majors on six criteria, using data from the National Center for Education Statistics and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Each degree was evaluated on a 10-point scale, and we used the weights specified below to come up with our final scores:
Number of occupations matched to each degree, National Center for Education Statistics, 2010: 25%
Average annual salary for all occupations matched to each degree, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014: 20%
Average projected job growth rate, 2014-2024, for all occupations matched to each degree, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2015: 20%
Average concentration of jobs per 1,000 for all occupations matched to each degree, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014: 15%
Number of schools offering programs at any level for each degree, National Center for Education Statistics, 2014: 10%
Average in-state tuition for all schools offering programs for each degree, National Center for Education Statistics, 2014: 10%
Based on that analysis, click through to see the 50 majors that offer the best potential return on investment.
 
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