Best Undergraduate Degree Part 2

Click here for part 1.

So, How Well Does Econ Pay?

*I got the average salaries from your career counsellor approved occinfo.alis.alberta.ca.

Let me start by just showing how an economics degree is a good stepping stone: Geology majors ideally become a geologist. Civil engineering trains you to become an engineer. Accounting paves your path to being an accountant. But not all Economics majors become economists. In fact, the majority of them do not.

Business

A lot of economics majors get into business fields. Some set out to become financial analysts. Others investment bankers. Others management consultants. Just a four year degree in Economics certainly qualifies you to all of those fields, although earning your MBA would be helpful. MBA is a sought after degree would benefit many roles in the business. Luckily for Econ majors, they score really well in the GMAT exam required for admission to an MBA program:

MBA salary: $60,000 to $140,000

Medicine, Law, Pharmacy, etc.

Medicine(MD) and Law(JD) are both prestigious, rigorous, lucrative and well-respected degrees. Economics gives you a leg up in both degrees by being one of the top scoring majors for the respective entrance exams for those degrees:

 

The flexibility in an Economics degree lets you take premed courses without overloading yourself. It can also be a great fallback if med school does not work out. Econ can also be a prepharm (PharmD), prevet (DVM), pre anything.

MD Salary (general practice): $190,000

JD Salary: $90,000

PharmD Salary: $110,000

DVM Salary: $100,000

Masters and PhD

Some people never get tired of learning and thus aspire to become researchers or professors. Economics is one of the best degrees to take to the PhD level. It opens up many well paying and in demand opportunities and is way less time consuming than to take a PhD in a lab Science. Check out this article for more information.

Economist Salary: $95,000

Professor Salary: $122,000

Anything else?

Economics majors can also find employment in urban planning(MPlan), policy work(MPP), statistics work(CompSci minor), politics (no degree necessary but Stephen Harper has an MA Economics), education(BEd to teach math and/or social), and many more fields. This is possible due to the flexible nature of Liberal Arts and the practical nature of Economics.

Financial Analyst Salary: $85,000

Urban Planner Salary: $95,000

Statistician/Actuary/Math Profressional Salary: $80,000

High School Teacher Salary: $75,000

Can Economics help Artists?

Most definitely! Not only fine and performing artists (Visual Art, Drama, Media Arts, Music, Dance, etc) they get a little bit of economic knowledge, Economics allows both for an easy double major (Economics + the art of choice) while also giving the aspiring artists a good back up plan. For many arts disciplines, a degree is not even required. Setting up an arts business targeting the local community or online would be possible through the light course load that a BA Economics affords you. Again, you would also be able to take arts options alongside Economics for some formal education. This is the route I myself have chosen.

Salaries largely vary.

Economics surely can’t do everything. What can’t it do? What could be alternatives to Economics?

Economics will not help you in any way if you are pursuing Engineering or Nursing. These are both great degrees but  they do have their cons.

While Biomedical Engineering is demand, pays well, and is a great pre-med, it drains your GPA down. This makes it iffy for the LSAT. It also doesn’t give you flexibility for double majors or Minors without overloading or taking more years in school. Labs in engineering courses also add on to the time you spend

Nursing is in demand as well and does not bring your GPA down. Many nursing students proceed to pursue medicine or law. Nursing still requires lab work and does not have much room for options.

If you wouldn’t want to sacrifice options, a good alternative to Economics would be Philosophy. Philosophy majors learn a lot of critical thinking and score on par with or better than Economics majors in the MCAT, LSAT, GMAT, and other prestigious tests. However there is not much demand for philosophy majors. A practical minor or double major would greatly enhance your prospects, though.

While Economics is on the low side of admission averages, trades programs usually ask for even lower averages, especially in mathematics. While trades jobs can often pay well, are in demand, and might allow for time for other pursuits, they don’t have the advancement opportunities that Economics has. Trades people oftentimes become trained only to their industry and their specific work. Economics allows you to easily switch to other job positions and other industries. Then again, the amount of math required to succeed in an Economics degree is definitely not for everyone.

Wait. How do you know all of this information?

Tiny clanging footsteps became my alarm clocks during the time we lived down my late grandma’s basement. She also ran a day home upstairs, and I often sought to help out with the kids. Nevertheless, I was not good with dealing with kids as I often saw them as tiny adults that you should take seriously. Obviously, that isn’t the case. A question I often asked them, perhaps as small talk, was “what do you want to be when you grow up?” I like asking that question because I’m still looking for ideas for myself, I feel sometimes.

These kids are really dreamy. Some want to be rock stars. Others doctors. Teachers. World leaders. Astronauts. Soldiers. Inventors. Video game designers.

I just want to be all of that, but there’s just no demand for medical space conquest technology professors. Maybe I should just make a video game or a rock song about that. Or you know, take Econ.

Now that I’m almost finished high school, I finally had to make the decision; I was beyond freaked out. I resorted to so rigorously researching different degrees and career pathways, and upon reaching enlightenment. This upcoming U of C Econ major decided that he should share these findings with you guys.

I plan to start a series of articles that deal with career advice for various fields (Engineering, Business, Healthcare, Trades, etc) starting next year. I plan to cover all possible fields well before Universities stop accepting applications for the next coming school year. Make sure to comment what field you guys want me to cover next time!

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