Forbes’ most valuable majors

1. Biomedical engineering

2. Biochemistry

3. Computer science

4. Software engineering

5. Environmental engineering

6. Civil engineering

7. Geology

8. Management information systems

9. Petroleum engineering

10. Applied mathematics

11. Mathematics

12. Construction management

13. Finance

14. Physics

15. Statistics

America needs English and history teachers. But apparently, it needs scientists and engineers more. Forbes magazine recently published a list of what it says are the 15 most valuable college majors.

The list is based on a basic question: “Which college majors are most likely to land you a well-paying job right out of school?” Forbes said “analysts at PayScale compared its massive compensation database with 120 college majors and job-growth projections through 2020 from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to determine the 15 most valuable majors in the current marketplace. Ranked by median starting pay, median mid-career pay (at least 10 years in), growth in salary and wealth of job opportunities, engineering and math reigned supreme.”

UC San Diego, San Diego State and some local research institutes are national leaders in teaching these disciplines, based on rankings from such periodicals as U.S. News & World Report. For example, the magazine ranks UC San Diego fourth nationally in biomedical engineering, the No. 1 major on the Forbes list. SDSU is highly respected in geology. The Scripps Research Institute is ranked fourth nationally in graduate-level biochemistry — the second major on the Forbes list. One of this year’s winners of the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine was Bruce Beutler, who worked at the institute when the award was announced.