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1 1 (January 2018)

handle is hein.amenin/aeiaaun0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Key Points * American universities awarded roughly 760,000 master's degrees during the 2014-15 academic year, yet we know little about the payoff associated with these degrees, especially by field of study. * Using new data from three states, we show that field of study is closely related to postgraduation earnings from master's degrees. Master's graduates in fields such as philosophy, art, and early childhood education have the lowest median earnings- often less than graduates with bachelor's or even associate degrees. * The highest-paid graduates earned master's degrees in fields such as business, information technology, engineering, or real estate. Differences in state labor markets also led to variance in postgraduate earnings, more so for high-paying fields than low- paying fields. * As the number of master's degree candidates and graduates grows, federal and state governments have an obligation to collect and disseminate program-level data on earnings-prospective master's students, indeed all students, should know before they go. Although the idea that the master's degree is the new bachelor's degree has been around for several years,' most discussions around the value of postsecondary education still focus on the bachelor's degree. These seemingly contradictory positions make sense: The master's has been the fastest-growing degree over the past two decades, yet the bachelor's is still the most common degree granted by the nation's colleges and universities.2 Despite substantial growth, relatively little information exists on the economic value of a master's degree by field of study. Reflecting the prominence of bachelor's degrees, however, the US Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) collects and reports wages for bachelor's graduates by major-the only college credential for which such information is made available in the ACS. Looking at annual median earnings for workers 25 years and older, the ACS documents considerable variation by bachelor's field of study-not surprisingly, engineering graduates top the list with earnings over $90,000 while graduates who majored in visual and performing arts anchor the bottom at just over $50,ooo.3 This kind of field-specific information is also available for the highest end of the education attainment scale. The National Science Foundation releases data on Ph.D. graduates' wages by field of study through the Survey of Earned Doctorates.4 For both male and female doctorate recipients, the highest annual median salary went to Ph.D.s in business and management ($11i,ooo+). For men, AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE

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