JOURNAL:What the Top 1% of Earners Majored In

What the Top 1% of Earners Majored In

By ROBERT GEBELOFF and SHAILA DEWAN



12:21 p.m. | Updated to add a fuller list of majors at the bottom of the post.



We got an interesting question from an academic adviser at a Texas

university: could we tell what the top 1 percent of earners majored

in?



The writer, sly dog, was probably trying to make a point, because he

wrote from a biology department, and it turns out that biology majors

make up nearly 7 percent of college graduates who live in households

in the top 1 percent.



According to the Census Bureau's 2010 American Community Survey, the

majors that give you the best chance of reaching the 1 percent are

pre-med, economics, biochemistry, zoology and, yes, biology, in that

order.



The 1 Percent



Looking at the top of the economic strata.



Below is a chart showing the majors most likely to get into the 1

percent (excluding majors held by fewer than 50,000 people in 2010

census data). The third column shows the percentage of degree holders

with that major who make it into the 1 percent. The fourth column

shows the percent of the 1 percent (among college grads) that hold

that major. In other words, more than one in 10 people with a pre-med

degree make it into the 1 percent, and about 1 in 100 of the 1

percenters with degrees majored in pre-med.



Of course, choice of major is not the only way to increase your

chances of reaching the 1 percent, if that is your goal. There is also

the sector you choose.



A separate analysis of census data on occupations showed that one in

eight lawyers, for example, are in the 1 percent — unless they work

for a Wall Street firm, when their chances increase to one in three.

Among chief executives, fewer than one in five rank among the 1

percent, but their chances increase if the company produces medical

supplies (one in four) or drugs (two in five). Hollywood writers? One

in nine are 1 percenters. Television or radio writers? One in 14.

Newspaper writers and editors? One in 62.

Undergraduate Degree Total % Who Are 1 Percenters Share of All 1 Percenters

Health and Medical Preparatory Programs 142,345 11.8% 0.9%

Economics 1,237,863 8.2% 5.4%

Biochemical Sciences 193,769 7.2% 0.7%

Zoology 159,935 6.9% 0.6%

Biology 1,864,666 6.7% 6.6%

International Relations 146,781 6.7% 0.5%

Political Science and Government 1,427,224 6.2% 4.7%

Physiology 98,181 6.0% 0.3%

Art History and Criticism 137,357 5.9% 0.4%

Chemistry 780,783 5.7% 2.4%

Molecular Biology 64,951 5.6% 0.2%

Area, Ethnic and Civilization Studies 184,906 5.2% 0.5%

Finance 1,071,812 4.8% 2.7%

History 1,351,368 4.7% 3.3%

Business Economics 108,146 4.6% 0.3%

Miscellaneous Psychology 61,257 4.3% 0.1%

Philosophy and Religious Studies 448,095 4.3% 1.0%

Microbiology 147,954 4.2% 0.3%

Chemical Engineering 347,959 4.1% 0.8%

Physics 346,455 4.1% 0.7%

Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Sciences and Administration 334,016 3.9% 0.7%

Accounting 2,296,601 3.9% 4.7%

Mathematics 840,137 3.9% 1.7%

English Language and Literature 1,938,988 3.8% 3.8%

Miscellaneous Biology 52,895 3.7% 0.1%

Source: 2010 American Communty Survey, via ipums.org



DV.load('http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/284289-all-degrees-sheet1c.js',

{ width: 480, height: 600, sidebar: false, text: false, container:

"#DV-viewer-284289-all-degrees-sheet1c" });