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Comment by sliverstorm | Hacker News Reader

So long as sciences and social sciences are lumped together as 'a college degree', the advantage and profit associated with a science degree will prop up the expectations of a social sciences degree.

It really does make sense for an experimental physicist to go to college. No matter how bubble-y it may be right now, there aren't many with just a high school degree.

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ah, but i would argue that if you are trying to maximize your income, becoming an experimental physicist is a horrible idea. You need a whole lot of education, and if you drop out before your PhD, it's all pretty much wasted. I've got a guy who does work for me sometimes who has both a math and a physics undergrad... neither of those degrees gets you a job. My understanding is that even if you do make it to a PhD you are looking at making about as much as a computer programmer or sysadmin with an undergrad or no education.

Not in my experience. In general, employers seem to view my math degree as more or less equivalent to a CS degree. I know for a fact that "PhD dropout" is good enough to get you in the door for quant jobs at many banks/hedge funds. Tech startups don't seem to mind either if you demonstrate that you actually like to code and aren't ivory tower (i.e., use grep rather than build your own regex parser).

well, this one datapoint is that this guy is starting out where I started out (I didn't go to school.) Now, he's obviously a really bright kid and I'm sure he'll do fine eventually, but for now, he's certainly not in the place he'd be in if he spent as much effort on work as he has spent on school.

Not my experience either considering I have a Math degree and had no issue finding a job as a software developer. In fact, I've noticed that the Math degree makes managers think of you as smarter. There is a perception of Math degrees as being harder than most other degrees. (I personally think EE is the hardest one out there.)

We could look at some data. Consider Payscale.com's salary data: http://www.payscale.com/best-colleges/degrees.asp

Math yields a starting median pay of $46,400 and a mid-career median of $88,300 -- higher than most other degrees.

I have a math B.S. and have had absolutely no problem getting a job... Perhaps if that's you're only skill it might be difficult?

If you get your PhD and build up a good publication history and a good track record for research grant awards, you can become something like a "brand name" in your field and you will be compensated quite well, (i.e. mid six figure range).

huh. I was not aware that research professor salaries went that high.

still, I'd argue that becoming a 'star' professor could be compared with becoming a programmer or sysadmin, then joining a startup and making it... it's not going to happen to the average guy in the field.

It's odd that the tuition rates are the same. I went to a very expensive University and for many majors it made plenty of sense. The school probably could have charged twice as much for computer science because of how many people I knew graduating straight out of undergrad with six figure jobs, but if you're an English major I can't imagine it being worth it.

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