College ScoreCard Earning by Major - Traditional 4-Year Colleges; Bachelor Degree

Data used in the project is derived from the DataMaster IPEDS project. Details of the project can be found at: Youtube.com and Tableau Public

As outlined in my previous article: College ScoreCard Earning by Major - 4-Year Public Bachelor, the newest College ScoreCard data has published the median salary for college graduates by majors, first year after graduate from college. In my previous article, I have concentrated on the public 4-year colleges. For this article, I have included the private not-for-profit 4-year colleges. This includes the elite private colleges like Harvard, MIT, ... etc.

As with previous article, in addition to the interactive tools provided, the author has prepared few static charts at the end of the article that facilitate the comparison between various majors/fields-of-study.

Below is the histogram chart for salary. The chart can be used to see the overall picture of the data provided by the college scorecard data. By setting both dropdowns to (All), the chart shows overall salary range for programs listed in the college scorecard dataset. Most program prepared graduates to earn a median wage of about $27,000 a year. In comparison, there are few programs that their graduates were paid above $90,000 a year. The was one program that was paid $141,000 a year and which is the highest. There were also few programs that the graduates earned only $3,000 a year.

By selecting a 2-digits CIP code, say 52 - Business, you can see that, for business major, the highest paid earned is about $105,000 while most of the program earned their graduates at $39,000 a year. Divining in by selecting a 4-digits CIP code, say 52.03, you can see that most accounting program earned their graduates at $42,000 a year while one program earned its graduate $81,000 a year.

Figure 1, Histogram Chart for Salary

If you were looking at the Figure 1 and were wondering who were those schools that provided high salary earning, you can use the Figure 2 below to find out.

For example, if you like to know which program/Inst. prepared its students for the most earning, keep the first two dropdown at (All), and select the highest earning category in the third dropdown, which will be $153,000. The program shows up is the computer program CIP 11.01 at California Institution of Technology. For particular field, you can select a 2-digits CIP first, and while leaving the 4-digits CIP code at (All), you can use the salary bin dropdown to select the salary. Once you did that, you will see a list of schools that fall inside that salary range along with the 4-digits CIP and the salary. Of cause, if you have decided on the 4-digits CIP major, you can go straight to the 4-digits CIP.

Have fun and enjoy!

Figure 2, the List of Institutions

Hope you are having fun so far.

There are many use of the above tools. If you are a high school graduates or parents and are looking for a suitable school, you can use the tool get some insights of you school. If you already have schools in your mind, these tools can give you a sense of where those school stand in terms of earning. But! Earning isn't everything. Otherwise, everyone would just aimed for the highest paid school/program. Remember that, everyone is different. It is really a matter of did you do your best? Schools too! These tools are telling schools to do their best and let students to vote with their feet.

The following charts are trying to provide some comparison information between fields/majors. It is not to sway your decision but to provide big pictures as in the openness and transparency of the need of a democratic system. Open and transparency does not mean free but a concept that people deserve the equal rights to access the information. For more on that topic, look at DemoMatters.org

Let's begin with the chart for STEM fields. STEM was put forward in the wake of worrying US falling behind in the world (economic) competition. Personally, however, I would like to view it as a movement to drive people to do their best! Many people are capable of knowing/learning more of STEM. The STEM is not going to push out other trainings/majors. But on the other hand, if people are avoiding STEM to avoid generous learning and studying, maybe this is a thing that can make a difference.

As shown in the chart, not all STEM fields are the same and, yes, they are not! These days, a lot of things are considered STEM and it really lost the focus from many point of views. From the salary's point of view, we should understand that it simply reflect the labor market's supplies and demands. Because not many students are finishing the engineering degrees (for one reason or the others), there are shortages for engineers. Also, because there isn't 'critical' needs for physicists and, therefore, their salary weren't high. Physicists may know a lot about how things works and could be a better technician or engineer. But, people can care less if you know the thing. If all it take is to follow procedure to fix things, so be it. So, don't feel bad. It is just the market value, it does not measure what you are. On the other hand, if you can but you don't, then that is a different matter.

From Figure 3, we can easily see that, in general, engineers got paid well followed by one branch of the health field along with 'information service' and 'engineering technician'. One interesting observed is that the health fields actually broken into two humps - the higher humps are pretty much correspond to the registered nurses and the other hump are much of administrative, nutrition and other services. Looking at other components in the STEM designation, they aren't doing as well. Other components leaded by the mathematician, then the 'physicist chemists' and followed by the social scientist, the second branch of the health field and, then, the biologist.

Figure 3, summary for STEM fields

Liberal Arts and Humanities graduates are constantly been considered the opposites to the STEM graduates. However, as to the first year salary, most liberal arts were paid compatibly to physicist and chemist.

Figure 4, Humanities and Liberal Arts

Besides the STEM and Liberal Arts fields, there are few fields that are well established and worth to take a look at. These are the business, the education, the visual/performance arts, and the agricultural related fields. Comparing to STEM fields, the business graduates got paid relatively well comparable to that of mathematician. The education graduates got paid comparable to that of physicist, followed slightly by the agricultural graduates. Compare to all fields we have discussed, the visual/performance artist probably paid the least, where the peak located.

Figure 5, Some major fields

Figure 6 shows some other fields that have relatively more data (i.e. more inst. provided the training). Within those, Architects doing relatively well.

Figure 6 and 7, fields with relatively more data

The rest of fields are shown in Figure 8 and 9. The number of data points presented in the ScoreCard are low - may just because few students are in those fields and the US Education department can have enough data to insure the data is statistically sound.

Figure 8 and 9, fields with relatively less data

College ScoreCard Earning by Major - 4-Year Public Bachelor

Data used in the project is derived from the DataMaster IPEDS project. Details of the project can be found at: Youtube.com and Tableau Public

Higher education have been touted by many as the ticket to prosperity, especially the higher education industry. But for many years, the industry was not able to provide measurable evidence of the benefit provided by specific higher education institutions. On the surface, people heard of stories and believes elite schools are 'likely' to provide more benefits.

The US Department of Education were on the mission in trying to provide American parents and students measures the were intended to help families in choosing schools that provided good values for their investment in the higher education. The College Score Card data is exactly aimed at that goal.

In the past, the College Score Card, has published salary data by schools. Unfortunately, the data would not distinguish the values of different field of studies. Since institionss have very different mixes of colleges, or field of studies, the published salary data were likely to reflex the composition of the institution instead of the value of the institution.

This year (2019), the November 20's update to the Score Card data, for the first time, were able to provide salary data by the field of studies, granted only the salary earned one year after graduated from college.

While the data is very useful, the web tool provided is a bit difficult for consumer to see the big picture. It is the goal of this article to provide user a different way of using the data.

For beginner, the Field of Study is classified by what we called the CIP code. The CIP code is used to classify degree programs into various categories. There are many CIP codes and, therefore, the categories. Each detailed category were given a 6-digits CIP code. Similar categories are then grouped together and are given a 4-digits CIP code. For now, the published salary data is at the 4-digits code level.

There are several way of using the tools provided below. To see the big picture, we can begin with Figure 1 by selecting the (All) for both the 2-digits and 4-digits CIP codes. This will show the overall salary data provided by ScoreCard dataset. For the histogram, you and see that of all the program data provided by the ScoreCard, there are 1,711 program that will earn their graduates about $27,000 for the first year after graduation. At the high-end, you can see that there are 4 programs that will earn their graduates about $114,000 for the first year.

Once we see the over all picture, we can dive into each of the 2-digits CIP code branches. Let's leave the 4-digits CIP with the (All) selection and just select the 2-digits CIP code one by one. This will allow us to get a general sense of the market value of each discipline.

In the case that if you were looking at a particular school, you can obtained the salary of your school from College Score Card's web site and put it in the context of the Figure 1.

One drawback of the Figure 1 is that it is hard to compare various 2-digits CIPs in order to come up with some extractions. To facilitate that, the author has provide some general observation at the end of the article beginning with Figure 3 below.

Figure 1, the Salary Range

If you were looking at the Figure 1 and were wondering who were those schools that provided high salary earning, you can use the Figure 2 below to find out.

First, you select the 2-digits CIP, and then the 4-digits CIP. You can then use the salary bin dropdown to select the salary. Once you did that, you will see a list of schools that fall inside that salary range.

Figure 2, the List of Institutions

As we all know that STEM is a heated topics in many economic development and higher education discussions. From the salary point of view, the suspicion is that STEM graduates get paid well. However, if we look at Figure 3 carefully, we understand that there are a lot of myth surrounding that perception.

First of all, the original idea of STEM is to identify field, knowledge, or trainings that are essential for the US to stay competitive in the knowledge centered global economics. This idea does not necessarily meet by the real world economics of supply and demands. The other problem of the STEM is the designation of fields. These days, almost any field that can remotely tied to the original idea were given the STEM tag by various 'researchers'. In figure 3, we do take the liberal route that included many 'STEM' fields. Of cause, our purpose is simply to show salaries comparison.

From Figure 3, we can easily see that, in general, engineers got paid well followed by one branch of the health field along with 'information service' and 'engineering technician'. One interesting observed is that the health fields actually broken into two humps - the higher humps are pretty much correspond to the registered nurses and the other hump are much of administrative, nutrition and other services. Looking at other components in the STEM designation, they aren't doing as well. Other components leaded by the mathematician, then the 'physicist chemists' and followed by the social scientist, the second branch of the health field and, then, the biologist.

Figure 3, summary for STEM fields

Liberal Arts and Humanities graduates are constantly been considered the opposites to the STEM graduates. However, as to the first year salary, most liberal arts were paid compatibly to physicist and chemist.

Figure 4, Humanities and Liberal Arts

Besides the STEM and Liberal Arts fields, there are few fields that are well established and worth to take a look at. These are the business, the education, the visual/performance arts, and the agricultural related fields. Comparing to STEM fields, the business graduates got paid relatively well comparable to that of mathematician. The education graduates got paid comparable to that of physicist, followed slightly by the agricultural graduates. Compare to all fields we have discussed, the visual/performance artist probably paid the least, where the peak located.

Figure 5, Some major fields

Figure 6 shows some other fields that have relatively more data (i.e. more inst. provided the training). Within those, Architects doing relatively well.

Figure 6, fields with relatively more data

The rest of fields are shown in Figure 7 and 8. The number of data points presented in the ScoreCard are low - may just because few students are in those fields and the US Education department can have enough data to insure the data is statistically sound.

Figure 7 and 8, fields with relatively less data

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