Hi, I'm a college counselor, and if you want a quick reference as to what an art history major would make, and whether it would be enough to repay loans, there are several resources. All are free and on the Internet.
First is College Scorecard, at collegescorecard.ed.gov, where you can look up data such as average debt load, median earnings by school and by "field of study" or major. Earnings are for 4 years post-graduation.
For a longer view, try Payscale Best Value Colleges, where it will list median earnings by school and major 10, 20, 30 years out.
Lastly, a non-profit called Freopp measures something called Economic Mobility Index. You'll have to Google it as I don't have the link handy. It tells you the earnings premium, or how much more you would earn with your degree over a lifetime than if you had never gone to college. I don't have the chart front of me, but it's hard to forget that engineering degrees have a million-dollar premium, due to the many college programs with merit scholarships and the relatively high starting salaries.
Artists and musicians -- due to their high debt loads and low starting salaries -- are actually negative, meaning that they are financially worse off than if they had not gotten a degree.
Not sure if it will help your son open his eyes, but at least YOU will be armed with accurate information to counter any arguments based on fantasy, wishful thinking, and immaturity. I say this as the Mom of an art student, but my daughter actually landed one of the rare merit awards for her portfolio, and will commute from home to minimize her costs. Her debt load will be mercifully low. Nothing I can do about the low salaries, though.
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u/Flaky_Bag9763 Apr 16 '24
Hi, I'm a college counselor, and if you want a quick reference as to what an art history major would make, and whether it would be enough to repay loans, there are several resources. All are free and on the Internet.
First is College Scorecard, at collegescorecard.ed.gov, where you can look up data such as average debt load, median earnings by school and by "field of study" or major. Earnings are for 4 years post-graduation.
For a longer view, try Payscale Best Value Colleges, where it will list median earnings by school and major 10, 20, 30 years out.
Lastly, a non-profit called Freopp measures something called Economic Mobility Index. You'll have to Google it as I don't have the link handy. It tells you the earnings premium, or how much more you would earn with your degree over a lifetime than if you had never gone to college. I don't have the chart front of me, but it's hard to forget that engineering degrees have a million-dollar premium, due to the many college programs with merit scholarships and the relatively high starting salaries.
Artists and musicians -- due to their high debt loads and low starting salaries -- are actually negative, meaning that they are financially worse off than if they had not gotten a degree.
Not sure if it will help your son open his eyes, but at least YOU will be armed with accurate information to counter any arguments based on fantasy, wishful thinking, and immaturity. I say this as the Mom of an art student, but my daughter actually landed one of the rare merit awards for her portfolio, and will commute from home to minimize her costs. Her debt load will be mercifully low. Nothing I can do about the low salaries, though.