 What's happening guys? So it seems like some people think that getting a STEM degree is the answer to everything. Why do you even make videos Shane? Just tell people to get a STEM degree. The truth is there are some that are a lot better than others and in this video that's what I'm going to be going over. And by the end of this video you'll know which ones are the best so you can stop researching and make up your mind already. But only if you smash the like button because that's good karma. Just kidding I do spend a ton of time researching these videos but at the end of the day it's just my opinion and you should do your own research as well. But let's go ahead and explore some different options that range from pretty good to amazing when it comes to STEM degrees. Number 10 on the list is going to be chemistry and this is a degree that's relatively well respected but you might be pushing your luck if you think you're going to be able to get a good job with just a four-year degree. A lot of people who get chemistry degrees end up going into the medical field which is another two years generally. A lot of others have to go back to school to get their masters or their doctorate in order to find a job. I would say that this one is a lot more flexible than a biology degree for instance though. This is also a degree that tends to have pretty good job satisfaction overall but this is one where you really need to do your research because it's not very straightforward what kinds of jobs or careers that you can go into after you graduate. Industry jobs tend to pay better and they have a more regular schedule whereas academic research type jobs tend to have a pretty hectic schedule and you're not going to get paid as well. And if you're not careful you could end up having to go to grad school just to be able to get a decent job. Number nine on the list is going to be geology. So geologists basically study the earth's surface as well as rocks and stuff and I was honestly really surprised at how well this one ranked. For one, geoscientists make pretty good money at around 91,000 a year and they have a decent job outlook as well. And a friend I knew in high school went into geology and they basically ended up working for a major gas company. It wasn't exactly what he planned on doing but he's pretty happy with it and he's making really decent money. And after looking into it I did discover that the reason geology does have such good statistics is a lot of them do end up working in the natural gas industry. And this is an industry that's known for really high salaries. With this one you might get to travel, spend a lot of time in the great outdoors and see a lot of new things. Now if you work in the mining industry or the petroleum industry your salary as well as your job stability is really tied to the commodity itself and that's a little bit scary. Many of these jobs will also require you to spend a lot of time away from home but overall this is a really decent one to get into and it's one that's worth checking out. Number eight on the list is going to be biochemistry. And this one is a lot like chemistry but it focuses more on the processes in the body. And biochemistry is pretty similar to chemistry it's just that the stats are quite a bit better. Now with this one you do have a pretty good chance of getting a job with a four-year degree but many biochemistry majors do end up having to pursue further education in order to get a good job. With that being said biochemistry is a lot more flexible than either just a chemistry or a biology degree. You see a lot of biochemistry majors going into the biotech field or the pharmaceutical industry. Now the stats are okay here but they're not amazing so I would say don't go into this one unless it's really your true passion. Let's say your passion is chemistry for instance and the stats on this one scare you a little bit you might want to consider going into chemical engineering instead. This is a really good option though if your goal after graduating is to transition into some kind of healthcare career because there's going to be a lot of overlap there. Number seven on the list is going to be mathematics and this one is excellent to get into as long as you're good at math. Now you start off at around $57,000 a year and then the mid-career pay is over 100,000. This is also a very well respected degree and many people that graduate with it end up working as software developers or they transition into different industries. And I think with this one it's a good idea to take extra classes in you know business or coding or something along those lines just to stay up with the times. In fact it's a really good idea to either double major or minor in something that'll make you more specialized just because this is a relatively general degree. And a few examples of majors that pair well with mathematics would be economics, computer science, physics, or statistics. This is a very flexible degree and that means there's a lot of different directions that you can go with it depending on your own personal preferences. You can go into teaching, finance, business, technology, data science just to name a few. Overall this one does require some planning. It's not straightforward like a nursing degree for instance but it's a pretty good option. Number six on the list is going to be statistics and this one is very similar to mathematics. It's a very well respected degree where you can transition into other industries pretty easily. However it has the same issue as mathematics where it's not very straightforward what your job is going to be after you graduate. But the reason that it ranks a little bit ahead of math is because it basically scores higher in every single category. You're going to start off at 62,000 a year and then after 10 years you know the mid-career pay it's going to be around 113,000. This one is also more employable than a math degree which can be a little bit too abstract in general and this is especially true if you take extra classes like I mentioned before or if you double major in something. A lot of statistics majors end up becoming actuaries, market research analysts, or computer programmers and all of these careers pay really well and there's a lot of opportunity. Number five on the list is going to be information technology. This is another really good one and there's a ton of different variations of this degree and pretty much all of them have really good stats and this one can be great if you're good at working with software and hardware but you don't necessarily want to write the code. An IT leads to many jobs that are related to network management and you can learn skills that are basically related to troubleshooting, problem solving, and other real-world applications. This one can also be really good for switching into entrepreneurship later on and just from personal experience a lot of the people I talk to that went into IT are pretty happy with their job. This is another one that's very flexible as well. A lot of IT graduates end up becoming software programmers and this degree is a little bit more hands-on and you can almost think about it like a trade career for the technology industry and there isn't as much opportunity here as say getting a degree in computer science but it's still pretty solid. Number four on the list is going to be actuarial science. Now this is another degree that's extremely math heavy but it's a little more focused on the math that's related to business and these degrees tend to be among the highest paying four-year degrees out there starting around 65,000 a year and ending up making around 130,000. Now if you end up becoming an actuary you can make around $102,000 a year and there's a healthy 20% growth rate but this is a very well respected degree and there's so many different directions that you can go with it. Now you do have to take a series of very difficult exams in order to get paid well and this in some cases can take years in order to complete all of them but the pay is amazing and it also has very good job security. This one is very flexible and it would probably be really good for you if you're a math wiz that's also interested in business. Number three on the list is going to be physics. Now physics might be one of the most difficult majors in undergrad it might even be worse than engineering but if you can handle it the pay is really good starting at 60,000 a year and the mid-career pay is around 113,000. This is also a very well respected degree and of course you can transition into other industries that pay really well such as software engineering. This is another degree where it's not super obvious what you're going to do with it because not that many physics majors become physicists so some physics majors do end up having to go back to school to get their masters or their doctorate in order to become a physicist. So it is important for you to do your research when it comes to figuring out what career path you want to go down but when you do find a job it pays really well and there's a lot of opportunities out there. Number two on the list is going to be engineering and there's a ton of different engineering degrees out there some are better than others and I've gone over that in other videos but overall engineering is an excellent choice and when you're talking about the best paying four-year degrees engineering degrees absolutely dominate the top of the list. Nearly all of the engineering degrees have a very good chance of you making it to six figures a year. One of the big knocks on engineering is there's not as much as demand for engineers as there used to be. Chemical engineers for instance have a pretty average job outlook of around six percent and many engineering grads have to move in order to find a job. Seriously engineering is extremely hard so you better know what you're getting into. Engineering also has that magical x factor that a lot of business degrees have where a lot of engineers for whatever reason end up becoming rich and when I did that video on the top 10 degrees that create the most millionaires engineering actually came in as the number one. What this tells me is that engineering is extremely flexible so for instance you could probably very easily transition into entrepreneurship. Overall engineering is a fantastic option but number one on the list is going to be computer science and this one probably won't surprise you. I talk about this one a lot on my channel. It pretty much ticks every single box and it's hard to find a weakness when it comes to the computer science. First of all the pay is really good starting off at 68,000 a year with a mid-career pay of 114,000. Overall the job satisfaction for computer scientists is relatively high. Computer science is the least regretted major out of all the different degrees that you can get in university. The job growth is amazing. Software engineers for instance are expected to grow at 21% with 1.3 million jobs available already. On top of that this is one of the most flexible degrees that you can get. Nearly every industry is being outright disrupted or they're at least implementing computer science. If you want to work part time from home you can do that. If you're extremely ambitious you want to go all out and shoot for the stars make a million dollars a year you can do that. If you want to work for a startup for a few years learn business skills and then go out on your own and become an entrepreneur you can do that as well. This one also has that magical x-factor that business degrees and engineering degrees have where when you look up the millionaires and what degrees got them there you do see computer science over and over again. Overall computer science is an extremely solid choice but go ahead and check out my videos right here i made them just for you smash the like button hit the subscribe button ring the notification bell and then comment down below any ideas thoughts comments etc that you have on the video thank you so much for watching and bye for now