Which College Major is the Most Foolish

We all know which majors attract the smartest students.  Those selecting the hard sciences are pretty clever while Elementary Ed majors are as dumb as a sack of hammers.  The question that excites me is somewhat different.

Given the abilities of the students selecting the major and the expected payoff for earning that degree, which students are making the wisest decisions?  The most foolish?

I understand that there are non-monetary considerations--theology students wanting to be closer to God and El Ed majors wanting to be closer to their intellectual equals--but given the wealth of resources available at your local library, college is not worth bothering with unless a degree will get you cash money.

To answer this question, I used two sources of data: Steve Sailers estimation of IQ by GRE score and PayScale.com's list of median salaries by major.  The IQ estimations ranged from 103 to 133 and the median salaries from $41,600 to $109,000.  I simply subtracted the lowest score from both sets of numbers to give me a rouch estimation of dollars per IQ point.  I compare this to an expected value of $2,246.67 per IQ point.  This method works well because Social Work majors are both the dumbest and the lowest paid. 

If you have a better methodology (and you probably do), don't tell me about it.  Just run the numbers and post the results.  I'll link you from here.

Unsuprisingly, Accountants are the wisest and Fine Arts the most foolish. Philosophy majors came off suprisingly well here.

Here's the raw numbers for you:

Major	Verbal	Quant	Sum	IQ	Median Salary	IQ Predicted Salary	Difference
Accounting	408	585	993	110	$77,600	57326.66667	$20,273
Business admin & mgmt. (Business Administration)	438	561	999	111	$73,000	59573.33333	$13,427
Health & medical sciences (Health Sciences)	447	552	999	111	$69,600	59573.33333	$10,027
Chemical Engineering	485	726	1211	128	$107,000	97766.66667	$9,233
Communications	470	533	1003	111	$68,400	59573.33333	$8,827
Electrical Eng	459	726	1185	126	$102,000	93273.33333	$8,727
Computer & Infor Sci (Computer Science)	466	701	1167	124	$97,400	88780	$8,620
Industrial Engineering	440	707	1147	123	$95,000	86533.33333	$8,467
Business admin & mgmt. (Business Administration)	442	592	1034	114	$73,000	66313.33333	$6,687
Public Administration (Health Care Administration)	453	515	968	109	$61,000	55080	$5,920
Mechanical Engineering	469	724	1193	126	$98,300	93273.33333	$5,027
Civil Engineering	457	700	1157	124	$93,000	88780	$4,220
Economics	503	706	1209	128	$101,000	97766.66667	$3,233
Architecture	475	610	1085	118	$78,300	75300	$3,000
Earth, Atmos & Mar. Sci (Geology)	495	636	1131	121	$84,200	82040	$2,160
Engineering (Environmental Engineering)	468	719	1187	126	$94,500	93273.33333	$1,227
Other business (Hotel Business Management)	444	599	1043	114	$66,400	66313.33333	$87
Social Work	428	466	894	103	$41,600	41600	$0
Banking & finance	467	711	1178	125	$89,400	91026.66667	($1,627)
Materials Engineering	494	727	1221	129	$98,300	100013.3333	($1,713)
Agriculture	458	592	1050	115	$66,700	68560	($1,860)
Life Sciences (Forestry)	462	581	1043	114	$64,200	66313.33333	($2,113)
Political Science	524	588	1112	120	$77,300	79793.33333	($2,493)
Psychology	472	545	1017	113	$61,000	64066.66667	($3,067)
Education	449	534	983	110	$54,100	57326.66667	($3,227)
Chemistry	486	680	1166	124	$82,300	88780	($6,480)
History	542	557	1099	119	$70,000	77546.66667	($7,547)
Sociology	488	545	1033	114	$57,900	66313.33333	($8,413)
Mathematical Sciences (Mathematics)	502	733	1235	130	$93,600	102260	($8,660)
Arts-Performance & studio (Drama)	488	553	1041	114	$56,600	66313.33333	($9,713)
Physics & astronomy (Physics)	533	736	1269	133	98800	109000	($10,200)
Biological Sciences (Biology)	491	631	1122	121	$71,800	82040	($10,240)
Elementary	442	526	968	108	$42,400	52833.33333	($10,433)
English language & lit (English)	560	553	1113	120	$66,900	79793.33333	($12,893)
Anthropology & Archeology (Anthropology)	533	569	1102	119	$63,200	77546.66667	($14,347)
Arts-History, theory, crit	539	572	1111	120	$62,400	79793.33333	($17,393)
Philosophy	590	638	1228	129	$76,700	100013.3333	($23,313)
Religion & Theory (Religious Studies	541	589	1130	121	$57,500	82040	($24,540)
Foreign languages & lit (Spanish)	531	574	1105	119	$52,600	77546.66667	($24,947)
Other Humanities & Art (Fine Arts)	563	599	1162	124	$56,300	88780	($32,480)