The Business of Degrees and Money Majors

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Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce recently released a study clearly showing, for the first time, the earning potential of certain majors versus others. Engineering, computers, and mathematics top the list of median earnings, although business degrees, at 25 percent of all degrees awarded, are the most popular.

 

But Peter Thiel argues that college is completely pointless if you’re interested in starting a new venture, and he’s put money into the game. Thiel (at right) is the PayPal co-founder and venture capitalist who’s giving 24 college kids $100,000 each to drop out of school and start their own businesses. Bloggers and commentators immediately criticized him, not only because he himself earned degrees at Stanford, but because his selection criteria of the best-and-the-brightest is essentially cherry-picking from those students talented enough to have gotten into the top schools at all. Continue reading