3个最具前景的本科专业

工科专业在最具潜力的专业中名列前茅也就不足为奇了。随着能源的变化和技术以人类历史上最快的速度发展，工程各个子领域的培训需求量很大：石油工程在过去 5 年中一直位居“理想申请人”名单的首位（我知道这一点，因为很早以前，我就在建议我 11 岁的教女进入这个领域！）。被描述为一个竞争激烈的领域，入门级石油工程师的收入在 82,000 美元至 120,000 美元之间，但研究生学位对于在这个水平上具有竞争力是必要的。石油工程师在寻找增加全球能源产量的方法之前开发没有人钻探过的石油和天然气储量（因此这项工作通常需要前往新的偏远地区）。核能、软件、电子和电气工程也发现自己在各种研究就业趋势的网站中被描述为有前途和有利可图的领域。

不出所料，随着我们的生活越来越多地转向在线平台，网络安全是另一个值得信赖的领域。 网络攻击以每 39 秒发生一次的速度发生，网络安全至关重要，因为它保护数据——从个人到机构——基础设施。 网络安全专业人员不仅应对数据泄露，而且主动防御在线安全渗透，保护计算机网络免受全球威胁。 职业道路包括安全工程和架构、事件响应、管理和行政、咨询和测试/黑客。 美国几个网络安全工作的平均工资（从 2021 年年中通过 glassdoor）从 59,000 美元到 153,000 美元不等。

对我来说，游戏设计仅仅意味着设计视频游戏——这对我来说从来都不是很复杂，因为我不是游戏玩家。然而，作为一个局外人，看到游戏如何在全球范围内被视为一项运动，以及将其作为一项运动选择的大学，随着我们的生活越来越多地转向在线领域，这是一个新兴的领域，这一点变得显而易见。游戏设计师是作家、艺术家和程序员合二为一，吸引了来自计算机科学、创意写作和平面设计的学生。他们的主要作用是让游戏“栩栩如生”。与我交谈过的大多数计划在大学学习此课程的学生本身就是狂热的游戏玩家，他们将个人热情与真实、实用且不断发展的行业结合起来。作为一个全球蓬勃发展的行业，视频游戏设计职业呈指数级增长。在美国，该领域的薪水范围很大，据各个工作委员会报道，从 24,000 美元到 400,000 美元不等，中位薪水为 103,918 美元……对于制作视频游戏来说还不错。

在当今市场上找到工作并不总是那么容易，特别是如果学生在申请第一份研究生全职工作之前没有工作经验。 然而，通过这三个学习领域，学生不会被委托进行“理论”学习，而是——即使他们在文理学院主修这些领域——他们也会获得直接转移到工作岗位的实际技能。 随着拜登政府对 STEM 签证的延期，这些是那些在量化学科中表现出色的人的增长领域，探索工程、网络安全和游戏设计方面的选择！

Three College Majors with the Best [Predicted] Future in the U.S.

Growing up in the U.S., I saw the people around me live independent lives, where children were encouraged to follow their passions, and do what made them happy.  For the longest time — all through college — I agreed with this philosophy and to some extent, I still do.  However, do I wish my parents had pushed me towards something like medicine?  As I get older, see how hard it is to navigate the medical system in the U.S., and just become more ‘practical’ the answer would be yes, I do wish I had been at least pushed to consider majors with very practical, need based applications for my life — along with a very, steady income.  Now working with international students and seeing how difficult it might be to find a position in the U.S. based upon their studies, I have become much more attuned to the ‘practical’–especially in recently seeing a friend (Chinese national) who studied Art in the U.S. unable to find employment in her field and thus struggling to find ways to stay in the States.  This led me to research what the current market demands (unsurprisingly, all STEM related) and what advise we might give our youth looking for future job career security.

ENGINEERING:

It is no surprise that Engineering majors top out at the best majors with the most potential.  With energy sources changing and technology evolving at the highest rate in the history of humankind, training in the  various subfields of engineering are in high demand: with petroleum engineering heading the top of the ‘desirable applicants’ lists for at least the past 5 years (and I know this because very early on, I was counseling my 11 year old goddaughter to go into this field!).   Described as a highly competitive field, entry level petroleum engineers make between $82,000-$120,000, though a graduate degree is necessary to be competitive at this level.  Petroleum engineers develop oil and gas reserves where no one has drilled before finding ways to increase energy production globally (so the job often requires travel to new and remote locations).  Nuclear, software, electronics and electrical engineering also find themselves described as promising and lucrative fields amongst various websites examining employment trends.

Cybersecurity

Unsurprisingly, cybersecurity is another field to bank on as our lives move increasingly to online platforms.  With cyberattacks occurring at a rate of one every 39 seconds, cybersecurity is vital because it protects data — from the individual to the institutional — infrastructures.   Cybersecurity professionals not only respond to data breaches but proactively work to defend against online security penetration, protecting computer networks from global threats.  Career paths include security engineering and architecture, incident response, management and administration, consulting and testing/hacking.  The average salary of several cybersecurity jobs in the US range (via glassdoor from mid-2021) from $59,000-$153,000.

Game Design

To me, game design merely means designing video games — which never seemed very complex to me, given I am not a gamer. However, as an outsider seeing how gaming is being embraced as a sport globally, and also by universities which offer it as an athletic option, it has become apparent that this is a burgeoning field as our lives move more and more to online realms.  Game designers are writers, artists and programmers combined into one, drawing students from computer science, creative writing and graphic design. Their main role is to bring a game ‘to life’. Most of the students I have talked to who plan to study this in college are avid gamers themselves, merging their personal passion with a real, practical and growing industry.   As a globally thriving industry, video game design careers have increased exponentially. The range of salaries for this field is large in the U.S., anywhere from $24,000-$400,000 as reported amongst various job boards, with a median salary of $103,918…not bad for making video games.

Summary

Finding a job in today’s market is not always easy, particularly if a student does not have work experience prior to applying for their first post-graduate full time job. With these three areas of study, however, students are not consigned to ‘theoretical’ learning and instead – even if they are majoring in these areas within liberal arts institutions – they gain actual skills that are directly transferred to a job placement.  With extensions to STEM visas under the Biden administration, and these being growth areas for those who excel in the quantitative subjects, explore options within engineering, cybersecurity and game design!