For the love of money

For many of us, graduation is approaching and participating in the “real world” will soon consume our entire lives. Instead of working at D.P. Dough and delivering “the alternative pizza” to college students at 3 in the morning to earn some extra cash, a real job will come into play and being a broke college student will no longer be an excuse. It’s time to be a grown-up.

We all work hard in college in order to graduate and hopefully, will find a job in a specific area that we love and are passionate about. But will the love of a job suffice when it comes to salary? Will the starting salaries straight out of college be worth the effort and hard work in college?

Let’s hope it pays off.

According to an article on CNN.com, employers are paying more now to out-of-college students than the past couple of years. The National Association of College and Employees found that business majors received a 3 percent increase in starting salaries out of college since 2003 leaving their average starting pay at $40,630.

Marketing and public relations majors are different, however. According to the NACE, marketing grads will receive an average starting pay of $37,832 and public relations/liberal arts students will receive an average pay of $30,337.

The Wall Street Journal salary data breaks down technical journalism majors and provides starting salaries around $30,000 for students within the areas of news assistants, reporters, web-content writers, editors and PR pros. The data shows that TV news assistants receive an average of $25,000 to start and reporters fall a little short at about $24,000. The highest starting salary for journalism majors however, is web-content writing and design at $32,000.

So what are the highest paying jobs for student’s right out of college?

The answer: engineering and computer science, with a recent 15% increase in the last year at almost $52,000 to $54,000.

Before graduating and ending your school career, I guess deciding if working in your area of study for love, will rule over money.