marketability of degrees

[korndoctor]

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if someone didn't get into med school or any other prehealth schools, which of these degrees is most marketable (getting a job and descent salary)

A bachelors in:
Computer Science
Biological Sciences
Chemistry
or Molecular and Cell Biology?

would anyone do a science degree for the money? if not, what degree would you choose and reasons?

 

[etf]

if i ould do it all again, i would get a degree in either business or engineering. or both.

 

[jebus]

I suspect the degree is less marketable than the person. Dance, too much booty in your pants.
I would say computer science.

 

[Apparition]

Finance, Comp Sci, Engineering, Accounting

 

[DrKitty]

Definitely computer science. I know some people in their twenties with just bachelor degrees making $100,000-150,000/year. You have to stay on top of your field though and remain competitive.

 

[DrBowtie]

Finance, Comp Sci, Engineering, Accounting

I concur.
No biological science will make much $$$

 

[Em1]

Out of those options, CS wins hands down (for money)

 

[endodoc]

Out of those options, CS wins hands down (for money)

My husband has a grad degree from Harvard in CS and MBA and he earns 200k+ w/o all the BS of med school, residency and fellowship.

 

[DrBowtie]

My husband has a grad degree from Harvard in CS and MBA and he earns 200k+ w/o all the BS of med school, residency and fellowship.

Good for him. However, for most people on this board, Computer Science isn't within their skill set.

 

[relentless11]

A degree in bio won't get you far...unless you want to be a teacher which is a perfectly fine job...but doesn't get much pay.

CS is good, but over here in CA, when the whole .com stuff went down the tubes, it has become less of a money maker than it once was. But it is hands down better than a bio degree in terms of getting a job.

I think these days, a real big one would be biomedical engineering. Can do a lot with that, and can tie in some computer science, and of course all the engineering stuff. When applied to medicine.... it = $$$$$

Chemistry is pretty interesting too, with all the pharmaceuticals out there. Pretty much...with all due respect to the many bio majors out there, in terms of getting a good paying job after college, a BS/BA in bio is not the way to go.

 

[Dave_D]

Well let me chime in and give one down side of a CS degree. You have to work with other techies and let me tell you some of them are a bunch of loons 😀

 

[newguy357]

if someone didn't get into med school or any other prehealth schools, which of these degrees is most marketable (getting a job and descent salary)

A bachelors in:
Computer Science
Biological Sciences
Chemistry
or Molecular and Cell Biology?

would anyone do a science degree for the money? if not, what degree would you choose and reasons?

I have a CS degree among others. It is boring. You stare at a screen all day. Most people interested in a service industry like medicine would not enjoy comp. sci. Also, I keep hearing all these ridiculous claims of 100k+ for recent grads in CS...and that's a bunch of crap. Are there some? Sure, a few. But go to your career office and look at the salary surveys. Average for a cs grad. is just over 50k/yr. 53 maybe. You'll be hard pressed to find a "regular" cs job that's even close to 60 for starters. Five years down the road you might make 75k if you play things right. Look at the salary surveys and the actual job advertisements rather than buying into this hear-say crap. Also a lot of traditional cs jobs have been outsourced. It might be safer to get into the tech management side of things, though even that is being outsourced now. There are a lot of cs grads serving fries these days.

Oh, and I agree with the guy a couple posts up who suggested biomedical engineering. That looks to be a good move these days. Especially with all the aging baby boomers who will soon be desperate to increase their lives a few years.

 

[Em1]

I never said CS was a particularly good idea, I just said it pays the best out of those options. I wouldn't do it... the CS majors at my school never sleep

 

[korndoctor]

so what would you guys do then instead of CS? yeah looking at a screen all day might be more boring than moving around pippetting heh.

engineering- you can only take the prereqs correct? at uconn, people have to take soo many engineering credits that there's no room on your schedule to take more mcb classes like biohchem or genetics to do well on mcats.

if science degrees don't pay well, why do hte majority of premeds (most don't get into med school) still major in biology? curious question

 

[DrBowtie]

so what would you guys do then instead of CS? yeah looking at a screen all day might be more boring than moving around pippetting heh.

engineering- you can only take the prereqs correct? at uconn, people have to take soo many engineering credits that there's no room on your schedule to take more mcb classes like biohchem or genetics to do well on mcats.

if science degrees don't pay well, why do hte majority of premeds (most don't get into med school) still major in biology? curious question

Most premeds major in Bio since they are interested in the subject (ie will do PhD if not med) or they don't know any better and think it is the only route to med school.

I would do Bio Engineering, Finance or Accounting if you want a solid backup. If you do BioE you should destroy the PS section and you don't need upper levels to do well on the MCAT.

 

[novawildcat]

so what would you guys do then instead of CS? yeah looking at a screen all day might be more boring than moving around pippetting heh.

engineering- you can only take the prereqs correct? at uconn, people have to take soo many engineering credits that there's no room on your schedule to take more mcb classes like biohchem or genetics to do well on mcats.

if science degrees don't pay well, why do hte majority of premeds (most don't get into med school) still major in biology? curious question

A mathematics degree combined with a minor in something like finance or economics is very deadly. A lot of business and wall street companies would kill for a person who is trained in math and knows some financial knowlege. Financial training is much easier to learn on the job than math skills.

 

[relentless11]

Most premeds major in Bio since they are interested in the subject (ie will do PhD if not med) or they don't know any better and think it is the only route to med school.

I would do Bio Engineering, Finance or Accounting if you want a solid backup. If you do BioE you should destroy the PS section and you don't need upper levels to do well on the MCAT.

Well said. I did some bioeng during my post-bacc days, and that stuff reinforces so many aspects of bio, chem, and physics. Its just all that stuff with math involved. Like come on, how NMR --> MRI. Gotta love it.

engineering- you can only take the prereqs correct? at uconn, people have to take soo many engineering credits that there's no room on your schedule to take more mcb classes like biohchem or genetics to do well on mcats.

Engineers do take a lot of pre-reqs. But thats why there's bioengineering which includes a lot of pre-med reqs, along with extracurriculars involving medicine, and other biological sciences. Truth is, there are only 3 reasons why pre-med would do a biosci degree.

1) They like bio
2) They don't know any better thinking it is the only route to medicine (and other health professions)
3) They want the easier classes (compared to say bioengineering)

Not everyone is cut out to be an engineer, and not everyone is cut out to be a biologist. I have yet to meet an engineer who had people skills...i'm sure they exist, but I haven't met one yet..haha. At the same time, I have only met a few biosci majors that appreciated the application of higher math to to model and explain biological systems.

Comes back to the age old...do what you are happy with.

 

[RxnMan]

It depends on what you're looking for.

Finance can get the big bucks. Computer science (which is programming, not science! No theories are tested!) can get some money, but you can be stuck in an IT job.

Of the other sciences, I'd stay away from bio/MCDB. I've been looking at jobs lately, and I see that most of those are lab monkey positions with 20-30k a year. A cut above that are chemistry degrees, which do much the same work, but earn 30-40k. An advanced degree doesn't get you more money as much as the ability to pursue specific positions (bench monkey -> independent investigator), though those top positions are meant to be supplemented with grant $$$.

Engineers make the most coming out of college at 40-55k. That increases by ~10k w/a M.S. Engineering is not for everyone. Math defines much of what you do and the concepts you learn. In addition, you may be stuck in front of a computer. I work as a bioengineer, and I have the good fortune to be able to spend part of my day interacting with patients. Bioengineering is an emerging field, so as of yet, there aren't as many places to apply your degree as mechanical, electrical, chemical, and civil engineers.

How about that for people skills, relentless11?

 

[beetlerum]

I would guess it's the MBA, not the CS degree, making him 200k+.

A bio degree can be marketable. Sure, it doesn't have as likely of an immediate payoff as CS, but it has potential. What you make will depend on you.

Remember, CS's major path to immediate $$ is doing CS. If you like, great! But if you don't, having that option for $$ is not such a great thing.

My husband has a grad degree from Harvard in CS and MBA and he earns 200k+ w/o all the BS of med school, residency and fellowship.

 

[Learfan]

Stay out of chemistry as there are very few worthwhile jobs above lab monkey status. You will need a PhD, three or four years of postdocing at a big name school and a lot of luck to get a real job. The last American Chemical Society employment survey revealed that only 38% of chemistry PhDs get jobs in their field. Given that statistic, let me provide you with the supplemental training given to all chemistry PhDs seeking to enter the work force. Please repeat after me:

"You want fries with that?"

I have the degree, suffered through 18 years in industry and am now MS1. Stay out of chemistry if you want any job satisfaction. The jobs are few and far between and usually suck at any degree level.

if someone didn't get into med school or any other prehealth schools, which of these degrees is most marketable (getting a job and descent salary)

A bachelors in:
Computer Science
Biological Sciences
Chemistry
or Molecular and Cell Biology?

would anyone do a science degree for the money? if not, what degree would you choose and reasons?

 

[korndoctor]

Stay out of chemistry as there are very few worthwhile jobs above lab monkey status. You will need a PhD, three or four years of postdocing at a big name school and a lot of luck to get a real job. The last American Chemical Society employment survey revealed that only 38% of chemistry PhDs get jobs in their field. Given that statistic, let me provide you with the supplemental training given to all chemistry PhDs seeking to enter the work force. Please repeat after me:

"You want fries with that?"

I have the degree, suffered through 18 years in industry and am now MS1. Stay out of chemistry if you want any job satisfaction. The jobs are few and far between and usually suck at any degree level.

wow that sucks. i love science, but that story is making me angry for choosing science in preparation for dental school.

if any of you had a choice of science majors (chem, bio, physics, environmental science, physiology & nuerobiology, soil science, and any other type of science), which one would you choose for the job satisfaction and money?

 

[beetlerum]

Um, I really doubt they're working in fast food. Many of them change fields--consulting, finance, patent law, etc.

Stay out of chemistry as there are very few worthwhile jobs above lab monkey status. You will need a PhD, three or four years of postdocing at a big name school and a lot of luck to get a real job. The last American Chemical Society employment survey revealed that only 38% of chemistry PhDs get jobs in their field. Given that statistic, let me provide you with the supplemental training given to all chemistry PhDs seeking to enter the work force. Please repeat after me:

"You want fries with that?"

I have the degree, suffered through 18 years in industry and am now MS1. Stay out of chemistry if you want any job satisfaction. The jobs are few and far between and usually suck at any degree level.

 

[Hardbody]

Accounting will land you a decent paying job for sure right out of college. Big money potential is there if you have "it". It is not for everyone and it has it's weed out classes that make it hell during your junior year, but you will find a job with that degree.

 

[novawildcat]

analytical chemists are always in very high demand. if you ever decide to persue analytical chemistry you could always work as an professional witness for court cases. my analyical chem professor did that on the side and said he would charge 200+ dollars per hour to be an expert witness. a chemistry degree is also excellent for patent law like you mentioned. big pharma is constantly making patents on new molecular structures and reactions. corporate lawyers usually charge anywhere from $200-500/hr.

 

[NonTradMed]

Computer science (which is programming, not science! No theories are tested!) can get some money, but you can be stuck in an IT job.

Not to nitpick, but I think there's a misconception that computer science requires no theoretical work....design theories and advanced algorithms are required at CS degrees (at least at my school and the schools my professors went to!). So there is a lot of theory work, it's just not used at the bachelors level once we get out in the real world. Most of the 'science' of computer science is done at the graduate level (phD), so many CS undergrads go into programming which requires little theory work (if any).

I did CS research and there is quite a bit of theory work and math (!) involved depending on what you do. It's a shame really, many IT companies don't know the difference between programming and what a computer science student is trained in and a lot of code we write is worth crap precisely because of this lack of distinction. But I'll reserve that rant for some other day....

To the OP, CS is the most lucrative of the majors you offered, but I had a degree in CS and had I the chance to do it over again, I'd pick something like biomedical engineering. I say this because doing CS and premed was extremely difficult to do together and I think it forced me to choose (for a brief time) the path between IT and medicine. It's hard to reconcile the two career paths, especially in college when their classes never overlap.

I left medicine to work in IT for two years before coming back to medicine, and I'm happy to have gotten into med school. But had I majored in something more closely aligned to medicine, I wouldn't have had such a hard time with my career choice or my college classes.

Anyway, I suggest something like biomedical engineering or chemical engineering. You typically can't go wrong with engineering. According to CNN, the starting salaries can't be beat by most any other BS degree:
http://money.cnn.com/2005/04/15/pf/college/starting_salaries/index.htm

And Keep in mind that the prehealth sciences requirement would overlap with your degree if you choose chemE or biomedical engineering. If you really like the health sciences, I suggest you keep it in the health science field.


FYI, I do know people who make six figures in CS, but all live in southern cali where living expenses are kind of high, and most have a masters degree, and have worked for a couple of years and/or have been promoted. It's a rare person to get a six figure salary coming out of college for ANYTHING so don't assume six figures is the norm. But it *is* doable with a marketable degree and a few years of hard work.

 

[korndoctor]

for patent law, is it easy to get into law school with a chemistry undergrad degree? I say this because only due to gen ed requirements, i'll have 2 courses in English, 1 in history, 1 in philosophy, and 2 in social sciences. will that be enough preparation for law school?

 

[Learfan]

I agree in that most chemistry PhDs are not working in fast food. Obviously I was being sarcastic. The problem that I was trying to highlight is that there are almost no jobs requiring that credential so after pursuing a five or more year advanced degree under highly inclement impoverished conditions you will then have to retrain to get a real job. That means another masters, a JD or some other degree taking two to four more years. The value of a PhD in chemistry in the job market is very low. If you want to be a patent lawyer then get an undergrad science or engineering degree and then a JD. Going into finance is very difficult since the value of an MBA has been heavily diluted in recent years. MBAs are a dime a dozen at Wally Mart these days. There are no consulting jobs for chemists. Consulting means "I work for a very high hourly compensation but only actually work 62 hours per year."

Um, I really doubt they're working in fast food. Many of them change fields--consulting, finance, patent law, etc.

 

[beetlerum]

You will not have to "retrain". That is not how most jobs work. Your training would tend to be no more or less than anyone else's training. If you go into law, you'll get a JD. If you go into consulting, you'll get on the job training, etc.

Now, if you're talking about the value of a PhD in chem specifically, that's a little different (the thread was originally about undergrad majors, I think). However, you will still likely use it. For example, you could get into consulting at the MBA level (which you couldn't do without the PhD) in pharmaceuticals or a related area or an unrelated area. The PhD is very useful for patent law (outside of engineering patent law, the PhD is a huge advantage and almost required). Perhaps there would have been less costly ways to get to where you got (such as an MBA), but then again, in many cases, that won't even be true.

Frankly, outside of law and medicine, most training is on the job. Having one major rather than another is not really that helpful, particularly coming from a good undergrad. CS/engineering will give you special opportunities, but only in those specific lines of work, so you better be interested in doing that. Coming from a liberal arts area like history can sometimes hurt a little bit, but the opps for chem aren't really that different from the opps in any other area.

I agree in that most chemistry PhDs are not working in fast food. Obviously I was being sarcastic. The problem that I was trying to highlight is that there are almost no jobs requiring that credential so after pursuing a five or more year advanced degree under highly inclement impoverished conditions you will then have to retrain to get a real job. That means another masters, a JD or some other degree taking two to four more years. The value of a PhD in chemistry in the job market is very low. If you want to be a patent lawyer then get an undergrad science or engineering degree and then a JD. Going into finance is very difficult since the value of an MBA has been heavily diluted in recent years. MBAs are a dime a dozen at Wally Mart these days. There are no consulting jobs for chemists. Consulting means "I work for a very high hourly compensation but only actually work 62 hours per year."

 

[novawildcat]

for patent law, is it easy to get into law school with a chemistry undergrad degree? I say this because only due to gen ed requirements, i'll have 2 courses in English, 1 in history, 1 in philosophy, and 2 in social sciences. will that be enough preparation for law school?

yes. about 2-3 out of 15 of our chem majors from the c/o 2005 got into law school.

 

[JimmyG]

for patent law, is it easy to get into law school with a chemistry undergrad degree? I say this because only due to gen ed requirements, i'll have 2 courses in English, 1 in history, 1 in philosophy, and 2 in social sciences. will that be enough preparation for law school?

Most law schools I know, you just need an undergraduate degree and a popping score on the LSAT. And the LSAT has some intriguing logic sections that, I have heard, science and math majors have a tendency to do very well on...

 

[huknows00]

I'm a BioE major and just want to note that at my school almost no one actually go into engineering. The reason is that undergrad BE is so diverse a curriculum that you barely take more than two classes in anything. You basically come out very good at applying math to chemical and biological problems but without a specific skill set. To get good jobs in biotech industry you probably need a masters or be coming from a traditional engineering background with experience in biotech related things.

That being said, BE is great prep for med school, your mastery of integrating scientific knowledge and analyzing new information makes MCAT a lot less daunting that it would be for one of the traditional science grads.

 

[etf]

i know some basketball players coming out of college to 7 and 8 figure contracts...

 

[colt]

What did they major in? I'll need to look into it....

 

[Rafa]

What did they major in? I'll need to look into it....

LOL 🙂

 

[StevenRF]

A B.S. in any science won't earn you much money at all. A B.S. is pretty much worthless in fact. For anything serious you've got to have your PhD or at least a masters, thats stretching it. If you still want science, maybe comp engineering instead of CS... programmers are a dime a dozen.

If you want a good backup degree, why don't you go for math? That degree gives one so many options. If I had to do it all over again, I'd probably go for that.

 

[korndoctor]

From everyone's posts in here, it seems that science is a bad backup plan to professional schools (low pay and no job security even with post graduate training).

For engineering, how about chemical or materials engineering? do those have good job prospects?

If i complete a BS in chemistry, is it hard to apply to chemical or materials engineering grad programs with no experience in those fields? or would i have to repeat undergrad and get a bs in engineering first?

 

[RxnMan]

From everyone's posts in here, it seems that science is a bad backup plan to professional schools (low pay and no job security even with post graduate training).

For engineering, how about chemical or materials engineering? do those have good job prospects?

If i complete a BS in chemistry, is it hard to apply to chemical or materials engineering grad programs with no experience in those fields? or would i have to repeat undergrad and get a bs in engineering first?

Chemical engineers have the highest salary coming out of college as reported by CNN. A chemist can get into a chem eng grad program with little fuss, but you would have to take remedials to make up for some classes - fluids, heat transfer, mass transfer, reactor design, etc. (Don't worry, most of these are fun classes) I would think that the job prospects would only become better as the oil market becomes more lucrative (sp?).

Materials engineers would allow a chemist in as well, though they may assume you have an interest in thin films or something similar (chem eng would understand the switch - you just want more $$$). I don't know so much about job prospects. In Colorado, Ball, Lockheed Martin, and a few other big aerospace names hire materials engineers. I would expect coming out of grad school, you'd make 40-50k/yr.

If you're going into industry, I wouldn't get anything more than a M.S. because that will take you as far as management, after which they would pay you to get an MBA. An eng PhD would overqualify you for many positions and is better suited to a academic job.

 

[RxnMan]

A B.S. in any science won't earn you much money at all. A B.S. is pretty much worthless in fact. For anything serious you've got to have your PhD or at least a masters, thats stretching it. If you still want science, maybe comp engineering instead of CS... programmers are a dime a dozen.

If you want a good backup degree, why don't you go for math? That degree gives one so many options. If I had to do it all over again, I'd probably go for that.

I knew a bunch of math majors in undergrad - and physics guys, too. None of them are doing math-related jobs, or applying their degree in any form. One went back to work on his family's orchard, another is working Target, a third just got out of his mom's basement because he got a job he didn't have to interview for 3 years after graduating.

In my experience, the math degree allows too much freedom - not many will hire you because you don't have a focused enough skill set to sell them.

 

[Pose]

Economics, anyone?

 

[disque71]

Computer Science/Engineering

 

[SirTony76]

If you're going into industry, I wouldn't get anything more than a M.S. because that will take you as far as management, after which they would pay you to get an MBA. An eng PhD would overqualify you for many positions and is better suited to a academic job.

I don't think that is true. My father has been working at Baxter Healthcare since 1977 with a PhD in Biomedical Engineering. He works with many people who have PhD's, they are very common in R&D.

Biomedical Engineering is the way to go these days.

 

[RxnMan]

I don't think that is true. My father has been working at Baxter Healthcare since 1977 with a PhD in Biomedical Engineering. He works with many people who have PhD's, they are very common in R&D.

Biomedical Engineering is the way to go these days.

A buddy of mine passed up the chance for a materials PhD because he would be overqualified entering the steels industry. Another passed up a chem eng PhD because it would make him less marketable entering the petroleum market. In general, industry jobs require, at most, an MS, while eng/applied sci PhDs go into teaching/academia. Some companies will pay for you to get a PhD after you've been with them for awhile.

In R&D specifically, you're right - but there aren't as many jobs in R&D as there are in other areas within a given industry. For those top positions, a PhD is required. Yet R&D is usually a smaller portion of a company than other areas (production, sales, etc.) and are therefore fewer in number.