美国最具有价值的专业

With rising tuition costs and a rapidly changing job landscape, a student’s college major is more important than ever. It can either set you up for lifetime career success and high earnings or sink you into debt with few avenues to get ahead of it.

随着学费的上涨和日新月异的工作前景，对于一名大学生而言，大学专业的重要性正在与日俱增。专业的选择既可以为你一辈子的成功事业和丰厚薪资打下基础，也可以因为没有就业出路而令你债台高筑。

“Unless you go to a top-20 brand name school, what matters most to employers is your major,” says Katie Bardaro, lead economist at compensation research firm PayScale. In fact, in a new report by Gen-Y researcher Millennial Branding, a full 69% of managers agreed that relevant coursework is important when considering job candidates.

“如果你并非来自于排名前20的名牌大学，那么对于你的雇主而言，最重要的问题就是你的专业了。”PayScale薪酬调查公司的首席经济学家凯蒂·巴德罗（Katie Bardaro）介绍道。实际上，根据Y世代研究机构Millennial Branding的一份最新报告，有高达69%的管理人员认为，在毕业生求职时，他们所学的专业至关重要。

So which college majors are most likely to land you a well-paying job right out of school? Analysts at PayScale compared its massive compensation database with 120 college majors and job growth projections through 2020 from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to determine the 15 most valuable majors in the current marketplace. Ranked by median starting pay, median mid-career pay (at least 10 years in), growth in salary and wealth of job opportunities, engineering and math reigned supreme.

那么，究竟哪些专业的毕业生能够获得报酬丰厚的工作呢？通过对比研究其薪酬数据库中120种不同大学专业的数据以及美国劳动统计局（BLS）发布的就业增长预测，PayScale薪酬调查公司的分析员们总结出了15个当今职场中最有价值的大学专业。

At No. 1, biomedical engineering is the major that is most worth your tuition, time and effort. Biomedical engineers earn a median starting salary of $53,800, which grows an average of 82% to $97,800 by mid-career. Moreover, the BLS projects a whopping 61.7% growth of job opportunities in the field—the most of any other major on the list.

位居榜首的是生物工程。对于这个专业的学生而言，他们的学费、时间和努力花的绝对值。生物工程师的平均起薪为53,800美元，而中级生物工程师的薪资则将平均增长82%，也就是97,800美元。此外，美国劳动统计局还预测，生物工程领域的就业机会将会激增61.7%，跟其他榜上有名的专业相比，这一增幅亦位列第一。

Engineering concentrations comprise one third of the most valuable majors. Software engineering majors (No. 4) earn a median of $87,800 after 10 years on the job; environmental engineering majors (No. 5) earn a median of $88,600; civil engineering majors (No. 6) earn a median of $90,200; and petroleum engineering majors (No. 9) earn a median of $155,000—the highest paycheck on the list.

在最有价值专业中，各类工程专业占到了三分之一左右。软件工程专业（第四名）的学生在毕业10年后平均能拿到87,800美元的年薪；环境工程专业（第五名）的平均年薪为88,600美元；土木工程专业（第六名）的平均年薪为90,200美元；石油工程专业（第九名）的平均年薪为155,000美元，其薪资水平高居榜首。

“These aren’t majors that anyone could do. They’re hard, and these programs weed people out,” says Bardaro. “However, there is high demand for them and a low supply of people with the skills, so it drives up the labor market price.

“这些专业并非谁都能学。它们非常难，只能物竞天择，适者生存，”巴德罗说道，“然而，一方面这些专业的人才供给较少，而另一方面职场需求却居高不下，因此推高了它们的劳动力市场价格。”

In the Millennial Branding survey, employers reported engineering and computer information systems majors as their top recruits. Also, nearly half of these employers (47%) said the competition for new science, technology, engineering and math talent is steep. That means while other recent grads fight for jobs, these students will likely field multiple offers.

Millennial Branding所进行的调查显示，雇主们在招人时，将工程专业和计算机专业的毕业生作为首选对象。此外，有接近半数的雇主（47%）称，在招聘新科学、科技、工程学、及数学等专业的毕业生中，存在着异常激烈的竞争。这意味着，当其他专业的毕业生还在为求职而你争我夺时，这些抢手专业的学生很可能已经争取到了多个工作机会。

Math and science concentrations are also well-represented on this list. Biochemistry (No. 2), computer science (No. 3), applied mathematics (No. 10), mathematics (No. 11), physics (No. 14) and statistics (No. 15) majors are increasingly in demand and well-paid.

数学和理科相关专业在榜单上亦表现不俗，上榜的专业包括：生物化学（第二名），计算机科学（第三名），应用数学（第十名），数学（第十一名），物理（第十四名）和统计学（第十五名）；上榜理由是这些专业的职场需求日益旺盛，而薪资水平也随之水涨船高。

Bardaro believes that the new data-driven market makes math skills, particularly statistics, more and more valuable to employers. Many companies now collect large datasets on consumer behavior, be it online search patterns or user demographics. Statisticians who understand data and can use it to forecast trends and behavior will do especially well, she says.

巴德罗认为，在依靠数据驱动的新市场中，数学知识（尤其是统计学知识）对于雇主而言变得越来越重要。目前，有很多公司都在收集大量的消费者行为数据集，形成在线搜索模式或用户统计数据等。统计员们对数据分析轻车熟路，他们可以根据数据预测消费者行为趋势，因此一定会有上佳的工作表现。

Conversely, the worst-paying college majors are child and family studies, elementary education, social work, culinary arts, special education, recreation and leisure studies, religious studies, and athletic training.

反过来，收入最糟的大学专业有：儿童和家庭研究、基础教育、社会福利工作、烹饪技能、特殊教育教学、宗教学、及田径训练等专业。