The 10 Worst College Majors of 2018

Another year, another upsetting list to devastate art and non-STEM majors across the country. Sure, low pay is a big factor in what makes a degree worthless, but it’s far from the only thing. With the job market as volatile as ever, the chances of finding a job is factored in just as heavily as starting salaries and mid-career salaries. What good is a degree if you can’t even get a job, right?

1. Photography
Photography is increasing as a popular hobby, meaning that freelance photographers are quickly taking over the full-time positions that used to be all but guaranteed for the best in their field. The starting salary isn’t very high for a full-time job, and the job market doesn’t bode too well for the rapidly growing number of photographers out there. For students going to college with a passion for photography, it might be best financially to look for another degree while pursuing photography on the side. Many talented photographers are bypassing higher education altogether.

2. Art
Art is usually the major that people associate with low pay and low job opportunities, but on the bright side, art failed to reach the top of this list.  Painters, sculptors, and illustrators manage to scrape together a median income of just $24,000 a year. 5% of fine artists are unemployed, and nearly a fifth of all fine arts majors have dropped out of the workforce entirely.

3. Radio and Television
Radio and Television majors are on the decline, with just over 7,000 graduates in the field in 2016. While a benefit of that could be lower competition for jobs, the job market isn’t particularly hungry for Radio and Television majors, ranking as one of the worst jobs for the future.

4. Anthropology
​Anthropology is a hard major to rank. While its average starting salary is higher than most on this list at $40,500, it is also one of the hardest degrees to find employment with. Over 12,000 people graduated with a degree in anthropology in 2016, as opposed to just 700 job openings looking specifically for anthropology majors.

5. Graphic Design
You would think that graphic design has a positive future with tech taking over the world, but the rapid growth of graphic designers is still difficult for the industry to keep up with. The average starting salary is $40,200, but projected job growth in the future is just 6.2%. Graphic designers who focus their talents towards websites, mobile apps, and other platforms of the future are likely to have more future potential success than graphic designers working for newspapers and print.

6. Paralegal Studies
Paralegal studies used to be a much higher-paying job than it was, but over-saturation and demand for lower-paid paralegals and legal assistants have driven down starting salaries to hovering in the mid 30,000s. An alternate route for people dreaming of being a paralegal is to obtain an associate’s degree in paralegal studies, which seems to be enough to get a decent job in the field.

7. Art History
Art History has the highest average starting salary of the ten on this list at $41,400. It pales in comparison when it comes to employment potential, though. Over 20% of the graduates with an art history degree have dropped out of the workforce completely, with an additional 4% being unemployed.

8. Music
The “starving artist” persona of following your passions despite struggling to make ends meet is definitely best personified by aspiring musicians. Average starting salaries are around $38,000, but only 1 out of every 8 music majors actually go on to work in a field related to music.

9. Exercise Science
There is nothing wrong with dedicating one’s life to health and fitness. However, from a financial standpoint, it might not be the wisest choice to dedicate one’s studies to it. With an average starting salary of $36,600 it doesn’t pay off for your pockets as well as it does for your health.  On the bright side, the widespread awareness of the importance of exercise and fitness mean that in the future, demand for exercise science majors might increase. Physical therapists are quickly becoming a job of the future.

10. Religious Studies
Religion is undeniably an intriguing subject, perhaps one that has helped shape our modern world just as much as science and technology. Religion has been around for thousands of years and its impact on this world is not in question. However, in today’s modern society, religion has slowly been losing its grip, and the job market reflects that. Average starting salaries start around $38,000, but a dwindling job market for religious studies degrees make it far from a job of the future. The low starting pay also suggests that one can find as well-paying of a job without shelling out tens of thousands of dollars towards a college education.