College students follow the money into STEM education, killing off struggling liberal arts programs

"The average humanities graduate earns a starting salary of $28,000 to $48,000 a year, said Leelila Strogov, CEO and founder of AtomicMind, an education technology company.

“Humanities and social science majors are on the decline, with fewer than 30% of students pursuing them,” said Ms. Strogov, whose New York-based company prepares high school students for college admissions.

Many liberal arts graduates work in human resources, nonprofit or government jobs, writing, editing, communications or marketing, teaching, research, and business development.

As more students seek higher salaries, STEM majors comprise up to 50% of entering college students, “especially at the Ivy League and other highly selective schools,” Ms. Strogov said.

Their favored majors: computer engineering, math, statistics and the biological sciences.

“The trend appears to be college students picking majors that will lead to more obvious career paths, as opposed to blindly pursuing their passions,” Ms. Strogov said."

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