Career Outcomes

If you want to advance your career or start a new one, earning a college degree can help you achieve your goals. A degree provides you with the knowledge and skills needed for success, and it can often be required by employers.

Earning Potential

Your education directly and dramatically impacts your earning potential and employment security, as figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show.

  • Less than a high school diploma: $708 per week and 5.6 percent unemployment rate
  • High school diploma: $899 per week and 3.9 percent unemployment rate
  • Some college, no degree: $992 per week and 3.3 percent unemployment rate
  • Associate degree: $1,058 per week and 2.7 percent unemployment rate
  • Bachelor’s degree: $1,493 per week and 2.2 percent unemployment rate
  • Master’s degree: $1,737 per week and 2.0 percent unemployment rate
  • Doctoral degree: $2,109 per week and 1.6 percent unemployment rate

Job Satisfaction

In addition to increasing your earning potential, a college education can improve job satisfaction. The Pew Research Center found that 85 percent of employed adults ages 25 to 32 with at least a bachelor’s degree said they have a career or career-track job, compared to 57 percent of those with a high school education or less. More than half of college graduates said that they are “very satisfied” in their current job (53 percent) and have enough education and training to get ahead in their job (63 percent).

Choosing a Career

Making the decision to pursue a college degree is the first step. Next, you need to choose the career that is right for you. Rivier University has developed some resources to help you understand your career options. Our career profiles give you an overview of each position, in addition to details such as work setting, job outlook, salary potential and education required. Use these resources to help determine the direction for your career.

Business

Computer Information Systems

Healthcare Administration

Nursing

Psychology

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