When it comes to your ability to pay off student loans and find a high paying job, not all majors have the same statistical odds.
At the end of the second quarter of 2023, total student loan debt in America stood at $1.6 million, signaling a 40 percent jump from 10 years ago.
The U.S. government has canceled another $9 billion in debt, making the total relief sum at $127 billion, but not all of graduates’ debt has been fully forgiven.
Looking at all U.S. bachelor’s degrees, certain majors were more likely than others to result in a heavy burden of debt, according to the Education Data Initiative’s new study.
At the top of the list for debt was behavioral sciences, which racked up a median debt of $42,822.
Meanwhile, those who chose the major of international and comparative education saw the lowest median amount at just under $13,000.
Still, some majors took up a higher overall percentage of America’s student loan debt, though, despite not being at some of the highest median debts. Business administration majors were at the highest amount, at 3.7 percent of the total debt across the country.
Top 10 Majors With Greatest Student Debt
The top 10 majors with the greatest amount of debt were as follows:
- Behavioral Sciences ($42,822)
- Religious Education ($31,984)
- Culinary Arts and Related Services ($28,586)
- Human Services, General ($28,586)
- Education, General ($28,001)
- Clinical, Counseling, and Applied Psychology ($27,439)
- Literature ($26,987)
- Natural Sciences ($26,912)
- Physical Sciences ($26,635)
- Music ($26,600)
Meanwhile, those majors which saw the lowest amount of debt tended to be more STEM focused in nature. On the other hand, many of them typically led to higher graduate degree programs.
Top 10 Majors With Lowest Student Debt
The full list for lowest debt was as follows:
- International and Comparative Education (12,969)
- Cognitive Science ($18,131)
- Business Operations Support and Assistant Services ($19,147)
- International/Global Studies ($19,895)
- Statistics ($20,645)
- Philosophy ($20,645)
- Public Administration ($20,645)
- Economics ($20,700)
- Agricultural, General ($20,785)
- Environmental Design ($21,224)
Across all bachelor’s degree majors, the median debt was in the mid $20,000s range.
Generally, arts and humanities programs had higher debt than social science, science and business majors, reflecting the starting salary rates of those fields.
Paul Morigi/Getty Images for We, The 45 Million
However, another aspect of the debt divide comes down to scholarship offerings from the schools themselves, according to Nita Chhinzer, a business professor at the University of Guelph.
“We know that university funding and scholarships are often specific to programs that alumni and donors support,” Chhinzer told Newsweek. “Securing funding or scholarships is one way to reduce student debt. Business, science, law, and international programs are generally better funded.”
If the programs are better funded, they likely have more scholarships and awards available for students.
Internships can also play a key role in how much money students have in their entry level roles after graduation, Chhinzer said.
“Students in programs like business operations, computer science, animal science, or international studies may have an easier time finding employment in their respective fields in Co-op positions, or during the summer given that employers are able to decode or make assumptions about the skills that individuals bring to the workplace,” Chhinzer said.
Meanwhile, employers have a harder time interpreting what a major in behavioral science, literature or astronomy can bring to the table, the professor said.
“This is not to suggest that the education received in certain majors isn’t a value,” Chhinzer said. “It’s to suggest that employers need assistance translating an understanding what that value is.”
Students who are best able to demonstrate their transferable skills on their resumes and network with professionals in their chosen industry will tend to do the best if they have chosen a major associated with a higher debt.
And this often is more important than actual GPA in your program, Chhinzer said.
“When it comes to undergraduate students, employers care deeply about the students’ university, reputation, and their program, more so than the students’ GPA,” she said. “Therefore, there is an inflationary effect for students who come from prestigious universities in terms of employment outcomes.”
That means those who went to institutions deemed more elite tend to have less debt as they gain access to better opportunities before graduation.
The University of Pennsylvania, one of the major Ivy League colleges in the United States, sees students earn a median income of $103,246 10 years after graduation. Meanwhile, the median debt load came in at just $16,763 across all majors.
And at Princeton University, median earnings hovered at $95,689, according to CNBC. And the median debt at graduation was just $10,450, reflecting the differing job market elite school graduates face across major programs.