A recent study from Georgetown University found that black college students are more likely to pursue lower-paying majors.

The study, titled “African Americans: College Majors and Earnings,” was conducted by the Center on Education and the Workforce at Georgetown University this year. The study analyzed 137 detailed majors, the number of black students represented in the majors and the median earnings for black students in each major with a bachelor’s degree.

Twelve percent of the population in the United States is black, according to the study. While access to college has increased among black students, they are concentrated in open-access four-year schools that offer a limited range of majors, according to the study. Open-access schools are schools that are either public or have high acceptance rates, or both, according to the study.

African-Americans are underrepresented in the majors associated with the fastest growing and highest paying jobs: STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), health and business, according to the study.

In STEM fields, according to the study, African-Americans account for 8 percent of general engineering majors, 7 percent of mathematics majors and 5 percent of computer engineering majors. In business, 7 percent of finance and marketing majors are black, according to the study.

At the same time, the study found that African-Americans are overrepresented in  majors associated with serving the community, which tend to be low-earning. In human services and community organizations, African-Americans account for 20 percent of the field and in social work they account for 19 percent, according to the study.

The majority of the low-earning majors African-Americans pursue are part of the “intellectual and caring professions” — highly educated workers whose salaries don’t reflect their years of higher education, according to the study.

African-Americans also represent 10 percent of health majors, but are concentrated in the lowest-earning major with 21 percent in health and medical administrative services. This is compared to 6 percent in the higher-earning majors of pharmacy, pharmaceutical sciences and administration, according to the study.

Surveys conducted for young African-Americans who initially enrolled in a STEM program and then decided to leave found that the students didn’t feel appreciated in the class, didn’t feel like they were a part of the class or felt they were expected to speak on behalf of their race, said Nicole Smith, senior economist at the Center on Education and the Workforce at Georgetown University.

“It’s a matter of isolation as well and not necessarily embracing different learning styles, different opinions, different perspectives,” Smith said.

Smith said it’s important that students are able to choose majors based on their own interests and values and not go into other fields just because they feel unwanted.

The highest median earning for African-Americans is in pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences and administration majors at $84,000, according to the study, and the lowest median earning was for those who majored in early childhood education at $38,000.

Smith said it is important for black students to choose higher-paying jobs so that there is more balance and representation in the job market.

“We want to feel in 2016 in America and beyond that everyone irrespective of race, color, country of origin, gender, (that) you have the same opportunity as everyone else. That you have the same level of comfort as everyone else,” Smith said.

More African-Americans in high-paying jobs can lead to more positive role models for younger generations to be financially successful, according to the study.

Smith said a way to increase the percentage of African-American students in higher paying majors is to have counseling and career services available from day one.

“We have self-selection by gender, by income level, we have self-selection by various different categories,” Smith said. “We have to let them know that the world is your oyster when you’re a college student and you have the opportunities to be whatever you want to be.”

Published on March 6, 2016 at 11:06 pm

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