Communications of the ACM
For Minority College Students, STEM Degrees Pay Big
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University of Southern California (USC) researchers recently completed a study showing that minority college students who major in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields earn at least 25 percent more than students who study humanities or education. In addition, student who took jobs related to their STEM degrees earned at least 50 percent more than their classmates who majored in humanities or education fields, according to the study.
The researchers followed more than 1,000 Asian and Pacific Islander, Latino, and African-American scholarship applicants for the Gates Millennium Scholars Program, which awards grants to highly motivated, low-income minority students.
"We need to educate students that if they get a job in a STEM-related occupation, they have an even higher earning premium," says USC professor Tatiana Melguizo.
Latinos majoring in STEM fields reported the highest earnings among the minority groups in the study, with an average annual salary of $56,875. "These findings are encouraging signs that strengthening the pipeline of underrepresented students into STEM careers offers a viable solution to our nation’s growing competitiveness problem in engineering and science fields," says University of Chicago researcher Gregory Wolniak.
From USC News
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