STEM Majors are in Luck

Students majoring in a science, technology, engineering, or the mathematics fields are in luck. According to a recent study published by Georgetown University, the occupations that require these skills, also known as STEM fields, are the second fastest growing occupations in the country.

Although the traditional jobs that arise from studying in such fields, such as engineering and laboratory work, only make up 5 percent of the labor force according to The New York Times, the demand for these skills have increasingly stretched to other occupations. Some examples include manufacturing, transportation, sales, and management. This, in part, is due to a growing trend for businesses to concentrate on technology, which has consistently proven to be a very profitable and necessary sector. However, despite the need for workers in STEM fields, there is a shortage of these workers in the United States. Many companies are forced to outsource these jobs to foreign nations.

This has led to a trend in which people who hold bachelor degrees in STEM fields earn more then 65 percent more then those who have bachelor degrees in other subjects. This income advantage also often increases with time. While STEM workers not only start out in positions that earn more than their peers, years later they often switch over to lucrative careers in medicine.

At Boston College, the most popular majors are general finance and communication, however biology/biological science is also a popular track. U.S. News and World Report estimates that 7 percent of BC students have this as a major. As the University does not have an engineering school, this is the highest STEM major on campus.

Robert Wolff, a professor in the biology department, said that those number of students who declared to be pre-med, in which students have a strong background in the natural sciences, has been steadily increasing since 2004. In the class of 2015, 562 students declared the pre-med track in comparison to a little over 160 in 1990.

"Last year 34 percent of incoming freshmen enrolled in our pre-med program. In 2004, 15 percent of the incoming A&S freshmen declared pre-med," said Wolff.

Don't assume that these findings mean majoring in the humanities is pointless, however. The New York Times reported that the biggest complaint about STEM workers is that they have poor writing and interpersonal skills.

Wolff, however, said that many STEM oriented BC students choose to focus in the humanities as well as science.

"As you may know, pre-meds can major in any field, so we have lots of bio majors, but many other majors, for example, English, economics, other humanities majors as well," he said.