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Salaries of OU Graduates Should be Higher
By: Tim Sharp
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If the numbers hold there should be more highly-paid Ohio University graduates than those struggling to make ends meet.
A report released Wednesday by the Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce entitled "Hard Times: College Majors, Unemployment and Earnings," and reported on in the Chronicle of Higher Education suggests the amount of money first-time job seekers receive is dependent on the graduates’ major field of study.
The study shows median salary pay rates for electrical-engineering and mechanical engineering majors at $57,000 annually.
On the low end are drama and theater-arts majors who might find it difficult to pay the rent on a median pay of $25,000.
Ohio University students appear to have recognized that trend even before the Chronicle report.
This year the Russ College of Engineering graduated 275 with bachelor’s degrees and 60 with graduate degrees.
The School of Theater at Ohio University graduated just 18 with bachelor’s and 16 with graduate degrees.
But even if you are a theater major there is something positive in your choice of career:
At least you can find a job.
“Information-systems majors had the highest unemployment rate, 14.7 percent. Following them were architecture; anthropology; film, video, and photography arts; and political-science majors, all of whom had unemployment rates of more than 11 percent,” the report said.
“Majors with the lowest unemployment rates for recent graduates were nursing, elementary education, physical fitness and parks and recreation, chemistry, and finance, all of which had rates of less than 6 percent.”