College Crunch

Thinking of topping off your bank account? Still deciding what career path you want to take? Well, the best careers often start with getting an education. According to a 2007 College Board report, people holding at least a bachelor’s degree typically earn an annual income that is sixty percent higher than people who only have high-school diplomas.

Schools With Online Degrees

Every year, tuition fees increase and if you’re planning to attend college, you might want to consider a degree that will land you a high-paying job that will allow you to pay off any loans and debts you have and give you a bright and successful future. Here are the top 5 degrees from around the world that will earn you the highest salaries.

Petroleum Engineering

According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, which tracks college graduates’ job offers, mathematics seems to be a very important key to getting the highest-paying jobs.

Some of the highest paying degrees in the world are engineering related, and Petroleum Engineering is at the top of this list. Petroleum Engineering is a technical profession involving extracting oil, something that is becoming increasingly difficult as the world’s oil supply depletes. These types of engineers are generally divided into three main categories: reservoir engineers, who work to optimize the extraction and production of oil and make the process more efficient; drilling engineers, who are responsible for everything technical that is involved with drilling wells; and production engineers, who manage what goes on between the reservoir and the well, and are also responsible for the separation of the oil, natural gas, and water.

This career is well-known as being one of the highest-paying careers today, with an average salary in the six-figure range. Yes, that’s right, the six figure range for helping supply the world with its petroleum needs.

Pass Out time (Course Duration) : 4 years
Payscale (based on experience):

• Less Than 1 year : $75.000
• 1-4 years: $90,000
• 5-9 years: $100,000

Future Job Possibilities:
Some might fear that petroleum engineering is a dying trade, with much of the world moving toward green energy and renewable resources. In fact, many oil giants such as Chevron, Shell and BP have already made huge investments in projects for tapping in other forms of energy including wind and solar. The good news for petroleum engineers is that they will eventually evolve into energy engineers as the world consumes all the finite hydrocarbon reserves and we look to the greener, cleaner forms of energy to replace them.

You may want to be aware, though, that while this is a high-paying career, there is a tendency for layoffs to happen when oil prices fall significantly. The opposite side of this is that as oil prices rise, so do job opportunities.

Nursing

A good head for mathematics and engineering isn’t the only skill that can land you a good job, though.

FACT: According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics nursing is now one of the biggest health care professions in America. Nurses currently hold over 2.5 million of America’s jobs and that number is only growing.

Employment prospects should stay excellent for nurses, as the BLS projects a twenty-three percent job-growth rate over the next 6 years. In addition to the good job market, a nursing degree can also be a superb investment due to:

• Great pay and benefits. In May of 2007, nurses earned a median yearly pay of $60,000, and most of those in full time positions had comprehensive employee benefit plans.
• Diverse degree paths. Through one of three degree programs: an Associate of Science in Nursing (ASN) degree, a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree, or a diploma program, you can qualify for entry-level nursing jobs. Generally, though, the more education you have, the greater amount of opportunities you will receive.
• Lots of potential employers. The current options for nursing positions are nearly limitless with many options including health care facilities like hospitals, outpatient care centers, and physician’s offices. Getting a higher education level also opens up opportunities such as teaching.

Pass Out time (Course Duration): 2 to 3 years
Average Starting Salary: $60,010

Future Opportunities:
Today, over 40 million Americans are currently without health care insurance. This number is quite overwhelming and presents cultural and ethical considerations. The popular choice for these individuals is called acute care, where one goes to an acute care facility and receives to receive treatment for severe, but brief diseases and illnesses. While America’s health care system suffers from a lack of these facilities, many uninsured and under-insured patients cannot afford them at all, which leads to an overcrowding of emergency rooms. That being said, the shift from acute care to population-focused outcomes by third-party payers will over the next 5-10 years result in communities becoming the arena for managing recurring illnesses. This will result in an expanded need for more nurses with population-level assessment, management, and evaluation skills. The US Department of Labor also forecasts that greater than 1 million new and replacement nurses will be needed within the next 6 years, making the choice to become a nurse a rather safe one.

Many nurses also return to school, most often to upgrade their education to become leaders in the industry; to further advance their careers, such as getting an advanced degree required for management opportunities; or to move to the next level of health care service and obtain a Master’s or Doctorate degree. Nurses could also take the path of becoming a manager in an insurance company or manufacturing pharmaceuticals, or even teach at the university level. Really, there is a great amount of choice available to a nurse, leaving you with a variety of possibilities to go along with an excellent salary. The potential for growth and learning in this career is virtually limitless!

Computer Science & Engineering

Technology continues to change at an every increasing rate, and if this fact excites you, then maybe you should look at a degree in Computer Science. Computer science graduates are always in high demand. This degree path focuses a great deal on programming and solving problems using computers and technology, thus making things we use every day more efficient.

A bachelor’s degree in computer science will prepare you for work as a researcher, programmer, developer or inventor in a corporate or university setting, or it may just land you your dream job working at Google, Facebook, or any other number of software, hardware and Internet-based companies. While you’re able to get a diploma in a 2-year program, larger corporations and higher-paying employers typically reward more jobs to those that have been through a 4-year program. The highest-paying jobs in this career will also typically go to the more experienced people in the field, however many companies are eager to jump at the opportunity to hire fresh graduates.

PassOut time (Course Duration): 2 to 4 years
Average Starting Salary: $56,400
Mid Career Salary: $97,400

Future Job Possibilities:
Understand that what we know today may become obsolete tomorrow, but you can have an impact on what replaces it. In fact, some have shown that what you learn in your first half of your degree program will become irrelevant by the time you’re finished your degree. With the complexity of technology increasing and the barrier for entry increasing, this highly trained, highly technical skill set will let each graduate become a special resource companies. With a growth rate of thirty-seven percent, computer scientists will be among the fastest growing job market in the United States through 2016.

Online MBA – Nonprofit Management Specialization

FACT: Eight percent of the US economy is driven by nonprofit organizations and they hire a number of MBA graduates who want to use their business degree for the common good.

The nonprofit management MBA can tailor your education to the specialized needs of nonprofit organizations, unlike a typical private sector MBA. Courses you can expect to take include those found in a traditional MBA, plus a myriad of others including an emphasis on fund raising, volunteer management, and nonprofit law.

Education is essential for anyone interested in upper-level nonprofit management. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that most paid executive directors in large organizations have graduate degrees, often specifically in nonprofit management or in business and public administration. While no degree can guarantee a career or salary, a nonprofit management MBA gives you the educational specialization many employers often prefer or require, while still leaving you with the general MBA skills to take a job with a for-profit organization.

Pass Out time (Course Duration): 2 to 3 years (varies with universities)

Don’t let the fear of a low salary scare you! Though many workers in non-profit fields receive a relatively low hourly wage, directors and upper-level managers usually receive a salary. According to the BLS and the Nonprofit Times annual salary survey, the average yearly salaries for nonprofit management include:

Salary for Entry Level and Experienced:

• Director of International Activities: $100,450
• Director of Marketing: $77,108
• Director of Education/Certification: $74,355
• Director of Publishing: $73,138
• Director of Membership Development: $72,953
• Director of Administration: $68,047
• Director of Meetings/Conventions: $67,997

Future Possibilities:
Depending on your skills, experience, and education, a nonprofit management MBA can open the door to a wide variety of challenging careers in both nonprofit and for-profit organizations. These organizations are not going to go away anytime soon, as long as they can still do their good work and receive their tax break, so generally, this is a fairly safe career choice.

Marketing

If you aren’t interested in a computer or math-related degree, there are other top-earning bachelor’s degrees that you can consider. Marketing careers can require fairly strong analytical skills, but offers more flexibility and creativity than most of the other jobs posted above. Nearly every company in the world that has a name will typically have a fully-staffed marketing department. Without one, no one would be able to find out about any products or services available, and the company would fail instantly. Even the smallest companies, down to those one-man start-ups, will either have a staffed marketing department or at least spend some of their time focused on getting the product or service into the hands of the public.

A career in marketing is all about innovation and finding new ways to advertise and get products and services into the world. It involves a lot of creativity and design more than anything, making it a great and rewarding career for many individuals that are less interested in mathematical skills and more interested in art and expression. There is often some research involved, finding out what your competitors are doing or how effective you’re marketing your products to your current and potential customers.

Pass Out time (Course Duration): 2 years
Entry Level Salary: $41,500
Salary After Some Experience: $89,400

Future Trends:
Because people are always looking for new things, and because businesses always want people to buy their new things, the marketing career is not one that is going to disappear any time soon, maybe not ever. With tasks like creating product and promotion strategies, analyzing potential pricing options and various forms of competition, marketing managers usually have a higher profile in the companies they serve. Competition for positions in this area can be high, but the Bureau of Labor Statistics anticipates strong job growth well into the future.

In Conclusion…

These are but a few of the high-paying degrees that are available to you today. Over time, they may replaced by new top-earning degrees that we have never even heard of today, but these careers are generally some of the most rewarding ones of our day. You can also be assured that most of them show know signs of slowing down or even job loss. So, if you’re thinking of going to school, furthering your education or getting your first degree, keep these in mind. But, also remember that some of the most rewarding jobs out there come from doing what you like to do.