searchable database<\/a>, covers nearly 3,000 certificate, associate and bachelor programs at private, nonprofit and public universities across California.<\/p>\nIt does not breakdown income by graduates at specific universities, nor does it take into account how degrees can provide an enriching education that sets students up for graduate degrees \u2014 and higher-paying jobs years down the line as attorneys, business executives and corporate managers, for instance.<\/p>\n
The difference in earnings potential in large part reflects today\u2019s modern economy and America\u2019s tech and healthcare needs. But in general, even a degree in the humanities and other non-STEM fields tends to result in higher incomes compared with those who never finished college. <\/p>\n
Graduates of English bachelor programs, for example, earned an average of about $55,000 four years after completion compared with an average of $36,082 for people who only graduated high school, HEA\u2019s analysis shows.<\/p>\n
Across all programs, those who graduate with professional certificates \u2014 such as HVAC maintenance and precision metal working \u2014 earn nearly $6,000 more annually than someone with only a high school education. <\/p>\n
Students who earn associate degrees, largely granted by California community colleges, earn $24,000 more than someone who only graduated high school. Bachelor degree holders earn $35,000 more. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis report shouldn\u2019t be viewed as a comparison of good and bad majors \u2014 a social work degree and a computer science degree exist for very different reasons and both have different kinds of values beyond a paycheck,\u201d said Michael Itzkowitz, president of the HEA Group. \u201cThis is about being better informed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Itzkowitz said one way potential students could use the database, which draws from federal data, is to find how much they probably would make in their field of choice and then pick a college that offers the education at a cost they can afford. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just critical that folks have this information upfront, because historically sometimes we\u2019ve seen people who are spending large sums of money, without an understanding that they would actually be earning less than expected,\u201d Itzkowitz said. <\/p>\n
Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, cautioned against picking a less expensive college solely based on the HEA data, because such statewide data doesn\u2019t break down average earnings by individual institutions, which can vary. <\/p>\n
Still, he said called the tool a \u201cgood contribution.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are much less likely to be surprised and disappointed at the end,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cYou know what you are signing up for.\u201d <\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a breakdown of the top-five-earning bachelor degrees, the middle five and the bottom five:<\/p>\n
The top earning certificate program and associate degree programs with at least 100 graduates were registered nursing, nursing administration, nursing research and clinical nursing, with earnings over $100,000. <\/p>\n
Nursing schools are hard to get into<\/a> because there are not enough spots to fill demand. But for students who do get a spot, they can expect to make more than some of the most popular bachelors degrees \u2014 at least within four years. <\/p>\n Graduates of the state\u2019s most popular major \u2014 business administration, management and operations \u2014 earned an average of just over $74,000. <\/p>\n
The second-most-popular bachelor\u2019s degree was psychology, whose graduates earned nearly $54,000 four years after completion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new analysis of California data shows that four years after college graduation, students who obtain among the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[17080,4937,176730,7,9,8,176725,176731,176728,176726,3872,11082,176727,176729,4574,42202,72],"class_list":["post-446079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-analysis","tag-average","tag-bachelor-program","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-college-graduation","tag-earning-potential","tag-enriching-education","tag-future-degree","tag-graduate","tag-high-education","tag-in-demand-bachelor-degree","tag-michael-itzkowitz","tag-student","tag-value","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}