Good morning College Smart Families,

We have a saying in the Navy, “Choose your rate, choose your fate”. The rates, or specializations, define your Naval career span things from Information Technology to Aviation Structural Mechanics. Your rate has an outsized impact on your quality of life, career opportunities, and more. Based on what the news has been publishing, you’d think that your major in college is similarly deterministic.

Here’s a quick sample of recent news stories and visualizations that demonstrate how the focus on STEM has developed over the past decade-plus.

• CNBC – STEM Degrees Surging
• Pew Research – STEM Degrees Rose by 62% from 2010-2018
• IST Coalition – STEM Occupations Starting Pay is 71% Higher
• Ben Schmidt Blog – STEM and Medical Degrees Have Absorbed All Growth in Degrees

I doubt that these links will contain any major surprises for you. The job market is hungry for tech talent and is willing to pay for it. As a result, students have increasingly demanded majors that lead directly into Big Tech. Further strengthening that relationship is that the top seven companies in the S&P 500 are tech heavyweights: Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, NVIDIA, Tesla, and Meta. If you add in the rest of the top 10, Berkshire, Exxon, and United Health they accounted for around 90% of the returns of the S&P 500 in 2023, as seen in this article from Amundi Investors.

That said, the connection between your college major and career field is not nearly as tightly knit as you might think. Click on this link to see a nice visualization of how tightly your potential majors tie to potential future careers: Hamilton Project – Visualization. The common jobs stacked bar chart on the left-hand side is particularly fascinating. For example, 19% of Biology Majors become Physicians and Surgeons. But 3.2% of them become Teachers. 1.3% become Lawyers or Judges. 1.1% become Sales Reps. In all, around 40% end up in Health Care or Life Sciences and 60% go down a path that you wouldn’t necessarily expect.

Your major can be a large influence in your post-college career, but oftentimes you’ll gravitate towards what your strongest passions are instead. For example, I’m an Economics Major who was rejected by my first-choice college, became a Navy Helicopter Pilot, and turned into an Educational Consultant. Let’s just say that 17-year-old me didn’t have this career in my plans. Despite that, I know that I’m where I’m supposed to be. Throughout my career, I found that I’m drawn to helping people, guiding them through the complexities of college admissions, and finding the best possible fit for their situation. It’s why the College Smart team spends so much time discovering who you are, what motivates you, and what is the most important to you. Ultimately that will help us position your school list and candidacy in the best possible light as well as find a great fit for you to stride into adulthood.

All of this is to say that it’s okay if you want to study Philosophy with the end goal of becoming a Surgeon (2.4% of Philosophy Majors do just that). It is just as viable to study Chemical Engineering and become a Lawyer (1.9% of Chemical Engineering Majors do just that). In college, it’s not a case of “Choose your major, choose your fate”. Instead, you can own your experience, thrive in college, and become the best Music Major Accountant that there ever will be!

As always, reach out if you have any questions. The College Smart team is here to help!

Thanks,

Ed & Catherine McCarthy

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