[See correction below.]
Report: “African Americans: College Majors and Earnings”
Authors: Anthony P. Carnevale, Megan L. Fasules, Andrea Porter, and Jennifer Landis-Santos
Organization: Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce
Summary: While more African-American students attend college, they are overrepresented in majors that typically lead to low-paying jobs, such as human services and community organization, social work, and theology and religious vocations.
The report, which studied 137 majors, found, among other things, that:
- Black students account for 6 percent of degree holders in the field of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences and administration, which had the highest median earnings ($84,000).
- Black students account for 20 percent of degree holders in the field of human services and community organization, which has the second-lowest median earnings ($39,000).
- African-American students are underrepresented in majors that lead to jobs in fields that are growing fast and offer high pay, such as business, health, and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, the STEM disciplines.
- The field in which African-American students were most heavily represented (accounting for 21 percent of degree holders) was health and medical administrative services, where median earnings are $46,000.
Bottom Line: There has not been a significant change in the number of African-American students across majors since 2009. While the report notes that picking a major demonstrates a personal choice, it also shows that African-American students are more concentrated at institutions that offer a more limited selection of majors.
Corrections (2/9/2016, 7:33 p.m.): In the original version of this post, the first two bullet points incorrectly stated that 6 percent of black degree holders had majored in pharmacy and that 20 percent had majored in human services. In fact, black students accounted for 6 percent of degree holders in pharmacy and 20 percent of degree holders in human services. The post has been updated to reflect that correction. In addition, the fourth bullet point has been clarified to reflect representation, not popularity, of the medical-administrative-services major among African-American students.
