Do you know the highest paying jobs with a bachelor's degree? Payscale.com's college salary report has extensive data on college majors, entry level salaries, and mid-career salaries.
When we work with high school students, we guide them through a process of career exploration, and researching salaries is an important part of that process. Often students decide on a college major without thinking about their long-term earning potential. They may not listen to parents at this age, so hearing from a professional is important.
Understandably, some parents push their children to study a subject that has high earning potential, even if they're not particularly interested in the subject. Often this backfires. Instead, we recommend that students who want to study a subject that does not have high earning potential consider the option of double majoring in two subjects. We like to think “both, and” at Ivy League Potential instead of “either, or”.
One of our students who was in such a dilemma is now pursuing two degrees at Stanford– engineering and English. He's happy and his parents are happy, and he's developing both the technical and soft skills needed to succeed in today's world.