10 Most Regretted College Majors and What Graduates Wished They Pursued Instead

Most Regretted College Majors Least Regretted College Majors Difficulties of College Graduates Paycheck become more important journalism Computer Science

By Jo Anne Hubert , Parent Herald Nov 15, 11:57 am

According to a recent survey, graduates who are most satisfied with their college major have good career prospects and high starting salaries as they enter the workforce.

ZipRecruiter surveyed more than 1,500 college graduates seeking a job and found that 44 percent of the group regretted taking their field of study.

Furthermore, the survey revealed that the top most regretted college majors are Journalism, Sociology, and Liberal Arts.

Here is the top 10 list of the most regretted college majors and the percentage of graduates that would choose a different major if they could turn back the time.

Journalism - 87%
Sociology - 72%
Liberal Arts or General Studies - 72%
Communications - 64%
Education - 61%
Marketing Management + Research - 60%
Medical/Clinical Assisting - 58%
Political Science + Government - 56%
Biology - 52%
English Language + Literature - 52%

Paycheck becomes more important

ZipRecruiter's lead economist, Sinem Buber, stated that these students were drawn to those fields while in school and took these majors voluntarily for reasons beyond income stability, salary rate, and job security.

However, many have expressed that after graduation, reality hits, and now they are either having difficulty looking for a job or they've found a job, but it does not pay well enough to have a decent living, CNBC reported.

"When you are barely managing to pay your bills, your paycheck might become more important. Pay is still most important, (but) job security is now becoming more important. That happens whenever we have the fear of a recession." Buber declared, concluding that the outcome of the Career continues to set the tone.

When asked what college major they would like to take instead if they could return, most of the graduates stated that they would choose to take computer science or business administration.

Computer science majors are the happiest

Jobs available for computer science majors have an average annual starting salary of almost $100,000, according to the 2021 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. And this explains why computer science graduates were the happiest overall in their chosen major.

Graduates that took criminology, engineering, nursing, business, and finance as their college majors also have no regrets and feel very good about their chosen fields.

Here is the top 10 list of the least regretted college majors and the percentage of graduates that would choose the same major again.

Computer + Information Sciences - 72%
Criminology - 72%
Engineering - 71%
Nursing - 69%
Health - 67%
Business Administration + Management - 66%
Finance - 66%
Psychology - 65%
Construction Trades - 65%
Human Resource Management - 58%

It has also been reported that, in total, the top-paying college majors earn $3.4 million more in a lifetime than those who are working under the lowest-paying majors.

According to Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, students who pursue a major in the STEM disciplines - science, technology, engineering, and math have been projected to earn the most.

The university also declared that, other than STEM, graduates who majored in health and business are among the "highest-paying," with average annual wages that are way higher at the entry level and with significant increases over the career course compared with liberal arts and humanities majors.