These Are The Worst-Paying College Majors After Graduation
Which college majors aren’t doing so great post-grad?
It would be nice to assume that everyone who gets a college degree is going to find a well-paying job within their field of study. The unfortunate reality is that some degrees are more lucrative than others: basically anything in STEM.
But what about the majors that are struggling a bit financially after graduation? We’ve rounded up the top 10 worst-paying majors five years after college graduation.
10. Nutrition Sciences—$40,000
Some nutrition tracks start as PreMed majors, so you might think this is a safe bet thanks to it being a medicine-adjacent field of study. However, nutritionists are one of the worst-paid fields within the medical community, especially if you don’t end up getting your RDN.
9. Psychology—$40,000
While you might think of psychologists charging hundreds of dollars an hour to speak with patients, know that those are the people who went on more schooling and got their Ph.D. in the field. If you’re planning on just getting a psychology major, know you probably won’t be able to do much with it.
8. Fine Arts—$40,000
Unfortunately for fine arts students, the outlook isn’t very bright. There tends to be a scarcity of well-paying jobs in this field, making it highly competitive to get into. Thus, the lack of demand drives down wages in the long run, making it difficult to make a living.
7. Anthropology—$40,000
Humanities degrees in general don’t tend to pay well after graduation, and anthropology majors are no exception. A chunk of anthropology majors don’t even end up working in the field and take jobs in fields like marketing or HR, which tend to have average pay. Unless you end up getting a graduate degree in the study, you likely won’t do much with it.
6. History—$40,000
A majority of history majors end up teaching (we’ll discuss why this is a problem below). Similar to English majors, the two tracks for history majors tend to be teaching or law school. If you don’t want to do either of those, there isn’t much you can directly do with a history major that’s relevant to your studies.
5. Elementary Education—$40,000
It’s no secret that a vast majority of teachers aren’t paid well in the United States. While there are plenty of benefits to teaching (like job security and summers off), they’re usually paid by the state, which has been chronically lagging in raising wages to keep up with inflation.
4. Leisure + Hospitality—$39,700
If you end up majoring in leisure and hospitality, know that you’re likely going to start in a job at the very bottom of the totem pole. Some people in the field have worked their way up to management or director positions, but this is the exception, not the norm.
3. Theology + Religion—$38,000
Theology majors are another important major that doesn’t receive great pay for their work. Most of the people who major in theology end up in some kind of educational role, which doesn’t pay well, either. Plus, since churches are nonprofits, most don’t have extra money to pay their employees very much.
2. Performing Arts—$38,000
Similar to fine arts, getting performing arts majors don’t fare much better. Again, it’s a highly competitive field to break into, so the need outweighs the demand, thus creating a lower overall salary for those in the field.
1. Liberal Arts—$38,000
While liberal arts degrees may seem like a good idea, their graduates tend to get paid much less overall. One of the reasons this seems to be the case is that the skills learned during college aren’t necessarily directly related to generating revenue for a business.
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