Let’s compare two graduates: one finished with a degree in health care and another finished a degree in the humanities. Assuming that all else is equal, who do you think will get a job the soonest?
Rising college fees, toxic student loans, sky-high unemployment rates and a general feeling of economic pessimism highlights the problems our incoming graduates. It does help, however, if you pick out a course that gets you a job sooner rather than later.
For example, fresh college grads of education and health courses have an unemployment rate of 5.4%, while graduates of architecture face an unemployment rate of 13.9%. This is according to the American Community Survey of 2009-2010.
Getting job experience and holding a graduate degree, however, show significant decreases in unemployment. Science and physics college grads face an unemployment rate of 7.7%, but only 2.2% of graduate degree holders are unemployed. Fresh grads of recreation courses face an even higher unemployment rate of 8.3% but grad degree holders but face a 2% unemployment rate when holding a graduate degree.
Well, at least all these college grads are statistically doing better than their high-school diploma counterparts. They face an unemployment rate of 22.9%, showing that a college degree significantly increases the chances of getting a job.
Do remember, though, that two other factors come into play here: performance and the cost of college.
You can graduate from architecture, heck you might not even graduate from college at all, but it will be up to you to push yourself to find a job instead of just sighing and throwing up your hands in despair. Then there’s the actual cost of studying. Taking on a $70,000 to $100,000 debt just to finish college can trap you with interest rates that will grab on to you and refuse to let go.
But hey, at least you can improve your chances if you pick courses with better employment opportunities.