JANUARY 18, 2012, 10:00 AM

What the Top 1% of Earners Majored In

By ROBERT GEBELOFF and SHAILA DEWAN

12:21 p.m. | Updated Added a fuller list of majors at the bottom of the post.

We got an interesting question from an academic adviser at a Texas university: could we tellwhat the top 1 percent of earners majored in?

The writer, sly dog, was probably trying to make a point, because he wrote from a biologydepartment, and it turns out that biology majors make up nearly 7 percent of collegegraduates who live in households in the top 1 percent.

According to the Census Bureau’s 2010 American Community Survey, the majors that giveyou the best chance of reaching the 1 percent are pre-med, economics, biochemistry,zoology and, yes, biology, in that order.

The 1 Percent

Looking at the top of the economic strata.

Below is a chart showing the majors most likely to get into the 1 percent (excluding majorsheld by fewer than 50,000 people in 2010 census data). The third column shows thepercentage of degree holders with that major who make it into the 1 percent. The fourthcolumn shows the percent of the 1 percent (among college grads) that hold that major. Inother words, more than one in 10 people with a pre-med degree make it into the 1 percent,and about 1 in 100 of the 1 percenters with degrees majored in pre-med.

Of course, choice of major is not the only way to increase your chances of reaching the 1percent, if that is your goal. There is also the sector you choose.

A separate analysis of census data on occupations showed that one in eight lawyers, forexample, are in the 1 percent — unless they work for a Wall Street firm, when their chancesincrease to one in three. Among chief executives, fewer than one in five rank among the 1percent, but their chances increase if the company produces medical supplies (one in four)or drugs (two in five). Hollywood writers? One in nine are 1 percenters. Television or radiowriters? One in 14. Newspaper writers and editors? One in 62.

Undergraduate Degree Total % Who Are 1 Percenters Share of All 1 Percenters

Health and Medical Preparatory Programs 142,345 11.8% 0.9%

Economics 1,237,863 8.2% 5.4%

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Biochemical Sciences 193,769 7.2% 0.7%

Zoology 159,935 6.9% 0.6%

Biology 1,864,666 6.7% 6.6%

International Relations 146,781 6.7% 0.5%

Political Science and Government 1,427,224 6.2% 4.7%

Physiology 98,181 6.0% 0.3%

Art History and Criticism 137,357 5.9% 0.4%

Chemistry 780,783 5.7% 2.4%

Molecular Biology 64,951 5.6% 0.2%

Area, Ethnic and Civilization Studies 184,906 5.2% 0.5%

Finance 1,071,812 4.8% 2.7%

History 1,351,368 4.7% 3.3%

Business Economics 108,146 4.6% 0.3%

Miscellaneous Psychology 61,257 4.3% 0.1%

Philosophy and Religious Studies 448,095 4.3% 1.0%

Microbiology 147,954 4.2% 0.3%

Chemical Engineering 347,959 4.1% 0.8%

Physics 346,455 4.1% 0.7%

Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Sciences andAdministration

334,016 3.9% 0.7%

Accounting 2,296,601 3.9% 4.7%

Mathematics 840,137 3.9% 1.7%

English Language and Literature 1,938,988 3.8% 3.8%

Miscellaneous Biology 52,895 3.7% 0.1%

Source: 2010 American Communty Survey, via ipums.orgDV.load('http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/284289-all-degrees-sheet1c.js', {width: 480, height: 600, sidebar: false, text: false, container: "#DV-viewer-284289-all-degrees-sheet1c" });

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