Survey Finds College Students Have Unrealistic Expectations About Earnings After Graduation

Be sure to read to the bottom. The part about journalism majors will blow your mind.

USA Today reports:

College students expect to make $103,880 after graduation – almost twice the realityToday’s college students expect to make about $103,880 in their first post-graduation job, a survey suggests. But the reality is much lower – as the average starting salary is actually about half that at $55,260, statistics show.The survey, conducted by Real Estate Witch, found that, across all majors and institutions, undergraduate students overestimate their starting salaries by 88%. And 1 in 3 worry that they won’t make enough money to live comfortably after graduation.Job prospects for the class of 2022 are higher than in recent years. A report by the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that employers plan to hire 31.6% more new graduates from the class of 2022 than they hired from the class of 2021.So far, however, Real Estate Witch’s survey, conducted online with 1,000 students March 23-26, found that only 15% of students graduating in 2022 have accepted a job offer.In NACE’s salary projections from February, estimates for this year’s college graduates were mixed. Most fields saw increases – with salaries for those majoring in math & sciences, and agriculture & natural resources, rising 5.4%. Meanwhile, humanities majors saw a salary decrease of 14.8% and communications majors saw a drop of 4.7%.Computer science majors were projected to be the highest paid group, with an average salary of $75,900 in 2022, according to NACE. In contrast, estimates for humanities majors marked an average salary of $50,681…Real Estate Witch found that undergrads studying journalism, psychology and liberal arts were the most likely to overestimate their future pay. Journalism students, for example, expected 139% more than the median journalist’s starting salary – projecting to make $107,040 one year after graduating while the average salary is actually $44,800.

Tags: College Insurrection, Economy

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