Health sciences grads, at 37.7 percent, most regretted taking out student loans, followed by art (32.1 percent) and social sciences (30.4 percent) graduates. (Photo: Shutterstock)
When they have to soldier on in the workplace under a load of student debt, many employees regret having pursued degrees, majors that don't entice high paychecks from employers and even which colleges they chose to attend.
So says the report Biggest College Regrets, which offers new data from PayScale, Inc. on how people really feel about those pricey college degrees.
It turns out that financial concerns dominate their thoughts about the schooling they worked so hard to achieve—with the sole exception of education degrees, which result in lower pay but apparently offer more esoteric rewards, resulting in 37.3 percent of education degree holders saying they have no regrets about their choice of major.
Grads are also more pleased with engineering degrees, at 42.2 percent, and computer science, at 34.9 percent, likely because pay in these fields has not stagnated as much as in others, particularly among the liberal arts. However, health sciences grads, at 37.7 percent, most regretted taking out student loans, followed by art (32.1 percent) and social sciences (30.4 percent) graduates.
Still, with 66 percent of respondents expressing regrets tied to their college choices and experience, it's not surprising that 27 percent said their top regret was their student loan burden. And, as one might expect, millennials made up the largest proportion of those who said their student loans were their biggest regret, with 28.8 percent saying so, followed by GenXers, at 26.2 percent.
“Our research shows the student debt crisis is impacting today's graduates in a very real way. Not only are they struggling with the burden of student loans to pay for the rising costs of education, but they are then also faced with stagnant wages for jobs in many areas of study which have not kept pace with inflation when they enter the workforce,” says Wendy Brown, PayScale director.
Brown adds, “While the experience of going to college is a cultural ideal for many, the cold realities of cost and income are making many students regret their college decisions.”
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Marlene Satter
Marlene Y. Satter has worked in and written about the financial industry for decades.
