BY: William Brown

A recent study released from Georgetown University shows trends in earnings based on undergraduate degrees.

The study shows an average starting salary range from lowest to highest, from approximately $32,000 at the lowest for a degree in counseling psychology to $120,000 starting out with a degree in petroleum engineering.

Interestingly, here at NAU, the college with the most students in attendance, College of Engineering, Forestry, and Natural Sciences, at 5,788 students is also the home of the most  lucrative starting salary, engineering.

The College of Arts and Letters has the lowest number of students on campus aside from the Graduate and University colleges, and while not holding the lowest starting salary of all, the college has four out of the ten lowest starting salaries included in the study.

Michael Vincent, dean of the College of Arts and Letters, said he does not attach a great deal of significance to the findings of the study.

“It’s probably true but it doesn’t include lots and lots of things that would be of interest to someone trying to understand the full story and all of its depth,” Vincent said. “I could point out that this is capped with a B.A. whereas we know that many students in every area, including Arts and Letters, go on for a master’s degree or a doctoral degree.”

The study does not take into account the earnings some bachelor degrees lead to after graduate work, focusing only on what someone with a bachelor’s degree will earn starting out in their particular field.

Vincent also said he thinks the study does not allow for the wide difference in salary in certain professions, only taking into account the median.

“If you’re going to be a musician, well, you can be, you know, playing piano in bars during the week or you can be Michael Jackson,” Vincent said. “There’s a big disparity there.”

While the study is quite detailed and comprehensive, it points only to financial openings available right after a four-year degree. Some of the degrees for lowest starting salaries on the list were psychology, pre med and pre law, all majors that can lead to careers well in excess of $120,000 a year.

Vincent said he thinks the study does not necessarily reflect on the importance of a position, only the dollar amount it provides.

“There are other things that are structural to our particular economy, for example, teachers,” Vincent said.  “Teachers will never make as much as engineers and if you use starting salary as a measure of value . . . then I think you’re going to be way off base. ”

Another curious trend the study showed is that the highest earning jobs are not the most popular. In fact, some of the most popular jobs are among the lowest earners.

Psychology and elementary education are among the top ten majors in the country in popularity, according to the report, tied at four percent of majors in the country. In spite of, or perhaps because of this, they are among the lowest earners.

Psychology starting salaries range from $29,000 up to $45,000, with specialties from counseling psychology to regular psychology.

Elementary education has a starting salary of only $40,000.

Another example is business management and administration (BMA), the most popular major in the country according to the study, comprising eight percent of the majors in the country.

Yet the starting salary of someone with a BMA is an average of $58,000, firmly in the midrange of the starting salaries of bachelor degree holders.

Here at NAU, some of the national trends have been upheld. As of spring of 2013, Elementary education and psychology were two of the most popular majors at the university, with 791 and 744 students respectively.