If having large amounts of money in the bank is your aim after graduation, it may be worth following in the footsteps of the world’s billionaires.
While we wouldn’t recommend using this as an infallible method of accumulating cash, here are 10 subjects you could consider studying at university.
10. Philosophy
Number of top 100 billionaires: 4
While only four ‘top 100’ billionaires have studied the subject in the past two decades, it goes to show that deep thought can be lucrative.
9. Commerce-based degrees
Number of top 100 billionaires: 5
Buying, selling, dealing, trading; it’s no wonder that commerce features on this list. While five may not seem many, four out of those five billionaires are self-made rather than inherited.
8. Maths
Number of top 100 billionaires: 5
It’s perhaps unsurprising that billionaires would be good at maths; how else would they keep track of all the money?
7. Computer science
Number of top 100 billionaires: 6
Unsurprisingly, in the age of social media and online entrepreneurs, computer science has seen six top 100 billionaires.
6. History
Number of top 100 billionaires: 7
Before you get too excited that a straight humanities subject is on the list, the seven people who took the subject all, in fact, inherited their wealth.
5. Science
Number of top 100 billionaires: 8
With STEM skills in high demand, you can be sure that you will be too.
4. Law
Number of top 100 billionaires: 15
A notoriously competitive degree, law can be taken full-time or as a conversion course.
3. Economics
Number of top 100 billionaires: 36
Look after the pennies and the pounds (billions of them) will look after themselves: 36 top 100 billionaires studied economics at university.
2. Business
Number of top 100 billionaires: 38
Want to study a business and management degree? If you don’t fancy Oxford or Cambridge, then you’ve picked the right subject (at undergraduate level, at least). According to the CUG, the best places to study the subject are Bath, St Andrews, LSE, Warwick and Loughborough.
1. Engineering
Number of top 100 billionaires: 48
By far the top degree area for billionaires is engineering. Whether or not you become a billionaire, with current demand for STEM skills at an all time high, you should find it easy (or easier) to get a job than in some other professions.