College grads in ‘AI-proof’ careers like psychology and education see negative returns on degrees

Key Points:

• A new report from the Postsecondary Education and Economic Research Center reveals that some graduate degrees, especially in psychology (-8% return) and clinical psychology (-5% return), yield negative cost-adjusted lifetime income returns after accounting for tuition and fees.
• Degrees in social work and curriculum and instruction also show negative returns, while popular fields like computer science offer only modest positive returns of about 6%.
• Despite the rise of AI threatening many white-collar jobs, graduate degrees in law and business still provide positive cost-adjusted returns of 41% and 13%, respectively, though these are much lower than the 173% return seen with medical degrees.
• Engineering fields, despite high average salaries, show relatively low cost-adjusted returns (2-4%), partly because many graduate students already have high undergraduate earnings in these areas, resulting in marginal gains from advanced degrees.
• Overall, graduate degrees increase earnings by about 17% on average, but students are increasingly questioning the value of higher education amid AI disruptions and rising unemployment rates among recent graduates, with some pursuing graduate studies for career changes rather than salary boosts.