Is the Best College Major for Earnings Actually a Second One?

It's a tale as old as time: If you want to make a lot of money, the best college major for a lucrative career is to study engineering and avoid the arts, right? 

Well, what if you studied engineering and art? A working paper from the National Bureau of Economic research suggests the best option is an and, not an or when it come to college majors. 

"Graduates with double majors seem to experience much more protection from market shocks," including mass layoffs, disruptive technology and labor demand shifts, co-author Drew Hanks told the Wall Street Journal about the results of the study. 

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Like an investor with a diversified portfolio, college grads with double majors tended to have fewer fluctuations in earnings than those with single majors, the paper found. That impact was most pronounced, the paper says, in grads whose majors were more differentiated (think: engineering and art, not chemical engineering and mechanical engineering). 

The researchers believe there is good reasoning for this effect.

"First, the broader range of skills possessed by double majors may position them for different jobs that are more protected from labor market fluctuations," the paper reads. "Second, double majors may generate an option value. For instance, if one major experiences a negative shock in labor demand while the other remains unaffected, a double major can pursue a job related to the unaffected major, thereby mitigating the impact of the adverse shock to their other major on their earnings."

Personally, I'm a big advocate for double majors — and this paper is vindicating my 19-year-old self's foresight. Brag incoming: I majored in both economics and creative writing as an undergraduate, and I've found both to be helpful in my career, both for what I learned and for the credentials they've provided. 

Studying economics helped me to see the world in a different way and think analytically, while studying creative writing helped me to be able to communicate and organize those thoughts. They informed each other in ways I couldn't have predicted and, wouldn't you know it, here I am using both in my role at Kiplinger. 

Beyond earning potential, pursuing a double major made my college life more fun. Instead of having to pick one lane and funnel myself into one definition, I played with different areas of study that I enjoyed. 

My other double major classmates also kept things interesting. For instance, I'll never forget when one of my classmates, who double majored in creative writing and mathematics, turned in an essay for a writing class peppered with equations that he made poetic.

After all, your college studies are about learning and exploring, not about earning potential... right? 

But if the undergrad in your life is focused on earning potential, you can always send them the latest information on the highest paying college majors — you just might want to suggest they pair it with one of the lowest paying ones for stability. 

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