College is neither a cheap or an easy investment but these 10 easiest college majors that will earn your money back come close to giving you back as much as you have paid for your education.
In an ideal world, everyone should be working the job that they studied for in college. But in the real world – the kind that we live in – underemployment and job mismatch is more likely and more realistic than not.
Here’s the good news: there still are tons of college majors around that pay off several folds of what you have spent in college. But here’s the catch (unfortunately): about 90% of the best-paying college majors are also some of the hardest. By hardest, we mean petroleum engineering hard.
In coming up with this list, one major dilemma came up. How do you exactly define what an ‘easy’ college major is? When we factor in personal preference and individual competence, what is easy for one person may not be easy for another.
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For this article, we have used the ‘easiest’ majors list on CBS News and The Best Colleges that used average GPAs as a gauge for the difficulty – or in this case, easiness – of a college major. The easiest majors, of course, were those that scored the highest average GPAs. Plucked out from these sources, we took each college major and searched for their average entry level pay based on the data from Payscale.
If you’re a parent of a pre-college kid, or a pre-college kid yourself, and you want to study any of the easiest college majors that will earn you money back, this read is for you. Want to earn while you’re in college? Check out our other article on the 12 highest paying jobs for college students!
10. Education
Median pay: $38,000
The median pay presented here belongs to general Education degree, but the median pay can go up in other specific subject areas – with Secondary Education degree bagging the highest median pay figures.
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8. Anthropology
Median pay: $39,000
Anthropology shares this spot with one other college major with a median pay of $39,000. The job prospects and the pay significantly increase with further studies. Anthropologists most frequently find relevant employment in non-profit organizations that work on cultures and history.
8. Sociology
Median pay: $39,000
Sociology students may not enjoy the highest salary at entry level but they do enjoy one of the widest range of job prospects. Sociology graduates can find work in research, social work, and education among others. Pay prospects also significantly increase with further education and work experience.
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6. Linguistics
Median pay: $39,500
A Linguistics degree is found to be most profitable when paired with another specialization like a foreign language, special education training, and speech pathology among others. The best prospects for jobs are in education.
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6. Language
Median pay: $39,500
The biggest Language-degree job opportunities are in education, but there is also a market of significant size for translators. Like Linguistics, further education and double specialization are necessary to advance prospects in this college degree.
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5. English Literature
Median pay: $40,000
English majors get a lot of flak online for the lack of relevant job opportunities, but the truth is the pay can be pretty rewarding. English literature majors find the most job prospects as teachers, but work in publishing is pretty inviting as well.
4. Humanities
Median pay: $41,000
Humanities lists as one of the easiest college majors that will earn your money back mainly because of the diversity of jobs available to its graduates. This list has 25 of them. The degree in humanities is the one that encompasses several areas and thus explains the range of job prospects.
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2. Philosophy
Median pay: $42,000
Entry-level philosophy jobs are available in different areas, including education, law, religious organizations, publication, and even social work among others.
Philosophy majors can earn more with further education including Master’s in Public Administration, an MBA, and even Law.
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2. Communications
Median pay: $42,000
The entry-level median pay for communications is about the same as the salary of those in other fields at Master’s Degree levels, like Social Work for instance, making it one of the easiest college majors that will earn your money back. Communications majors can try out a range of jobs in media, in education, publication, and even in the government service.
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1. Information Systems
Median pay: $51,000
We are not sure what is more surprising about this entry on our list of the easiest college majors that will earn your money back: that it’s easy or that it does not earn more than these figures. Of course, the number is at entry level, but it still is one of the most relevant, most in-demand degrees in today’s digital world. Anyone with an IS (or related) degree can work practically anywhere.
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College is an investment, and it is only logical that you or your child chooses the one that offers an assurance of return. After all, college is not a cheap investment. Which career can you or your child see themselves working in?
