The Playgoer: Happy Graduation, Drama Majors

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Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Happy Graduation, Drama Majors

In case you needed further confirmation...

We salute and congratulate the graduates whose interests (and hard work) have led them to the following degrees--the lowest-earning degrees on PayScale's list.

10. Drama (starting annual salary: $35,600; mid-career annual salary: $56,600)
Some mega-millionaire movie stars with drama degrees (Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep, for instance) may be skewing these numbers upward--for every Denzel and Meryl, there are thousands of thespians struggling to make ends meet. But you don't study drama because you want to get rich--you study drama because you love the theater. (And an ability to act comes in handy in many professions.)
Wow, $35-$55K!  Get me my tap shoes!


Where do these folks get their statistics???  Their #1 was "Social Work" at $33K/$41K.  I know a lot of actors who would kill for that.

3 comments:

Arielle said...

If recent drama graduates are earning 35K, they're doing it by working as paralegals and HR assistants (been there!), not by working in the field of drama. As opposed to, for example, social work graduates, who I assume generally do start work in their own field upon graduation.

Isaiah Tanenbaum said...

Although it is possible to cobble together something with a decent BA that at least uses theater. I'm a "teaching artist" which means I get paid to go in and direct little kids in public schools. That's using a drama degree for sure. But it doesn't pay 35K...

PeonInChief said...

Most social worker positions now require a Master's for all but entry-level jobs. In fact, most BAs aren't worth much. There was a joke among history majors that your first job post-university required that you know the phrase "would you like fries with that?"