Online college degree

By Matthew Felsted

Making the decision to get a college degree can be one of the most important decisions of your life. The earnings potential of an adult that has no college education and that of someone with a professional college degree can be staggering. Over the course of a lifetime a professional with a Ph.D. degree will earn on average $3.25 million, and someone with a master's degree can expect to earn $2.67 million. For a bachelor's degree? The lifetime earning potential averages $2.27 million. Compare that with someone that has only a high school education.

The lifetime earnings potential of someone with a high school degree is just $1.2 million.

What majors pay the most? The answer is Engineering. Graduates of Engineering can expect to make nearly twice as much as an Education major. The average engineer will make $3.5 million over the course of a 40 year career on average. Engineering takes discipline and is a rigorous field of study.  

Some typical annual salaries for different majors and professions:

Law and legal studies

Attorney V $180,818

Professor of Law $150,174

Engineering

Stationary Engineer $49,443

Mechanical Engineer III $85,951

Education

Instructor - Education $47,694
Professor - Education $84,289

Graphic Design

Web Designer $61,417
Graphic Design Specialist $38,324

Psychology

Psychologist $85,021

Professor of Psychology $86,894

Medical

Physician - Generalist $173,465

Surgeon $320,394

*Figures are calculated from Salary.com

These 5 majors listed represent only a narrow sampling of all the diverse degree programs and majors offered by universities around the world.

Where to go from here?

What is right for you depends on what you are most passionate about doing. If you are in your vocation then work really doesn't seem like work and at the end of the day you are completely happy with what you do. You can start by looking up majors and online degree programs with an online college. By starting with an online university, you can have a better range of options right just for you. There should be some online education degree program links at the top right of the page. Good luck!

Helpful resources
http://www.salary.com
http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/p23-210.pdf
http://money.cnn.com/2012/10/16/news/economy/college-degree-earnings/index.html
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/2011/08/05/how-higher-education-affects-lifetime-salary