Image: Digital Vision

If you are looking into college soon or are planning your children’s college education, the decision of what to major in is a significant one. In today’s economy, deciding on a major could ultimately lead you to a high-paying career or lead to a profession that’s struggling.

According to a May interview between Payscale’s lead economist Katie Bardaro and Forbes, unless a candidate has attended a top-notch school, today’s employers are more concerned with relevant coursework and a potential employee’s major.

While you are preparing your research into colleges and universities, getting your SAT test scores together, or mapping out your child’s educational future, make sure you take a look at some of the most popular college majors and how they could benefit you or your child after graduation.

Image: Comstock

A Georgetown University study shows that those with only a high school education have been hurt most by the economic recession. Between the beginning of 2010 and the beginning of this year, people who only went as far as a high school diploma lost 200,000 jobs.

Those with a college degree have fared much better. The research broke down the 140 million members of the U.S. workforce into three groups: those with no college education; those with some college or an Associate’s degree; and those with a Bachelor’s degree or more. The research found that the group with the college degree and better suffered no net job loss over the two-year time period. In fact, the number of people who had jobs climbed by 2.2 million people between the first signs of the recession in 2007 to the beginning of this year.

This probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise. But it does say something about the ways in which our workforce and the jobs available in this country are moving in a different direction.

“Industries like manufacturing, construction and transportation, where many of the jobs don’t require college degrees, have all had sharp job losses since the recession started,” Forbes reports. There’s been a great deal of focus about how the loss of these jobs affects men. However, job losses in government and education have affected women as well.

African-American women are swarming college campuses, in essence creating a cushion for themselves against this current recession and future economic fluctuations. As we continue to make progress in this “innovation economy” having that degree under your belt will become even more important.

This Fall, Michael Eric Dyson, noted author, educator, and public speaker will be teaching a sociology class titled “The Sociology of Jay-Z” at Georgetown University. Dyson will draw from texts such as Jay-Z’s own Decoded, Adam Bradley’s Book of Rhymes, and Zack O’Malley Greenburg’s Empire State of Mind, along with other articles and films about hip-hop culture.

Dyson spoke with MTV about the project last week while at Jay-Z’s carnival-themed fundraiser for the Shawn Carter Scholarship Foundation:

“We look at his incredible body of work, we look at his own understanding of his work, we look at others who reflect upon him, and then we ask the students to engage in critical analysis of Jay-Z himself. Not only is he a remarkable rhetorical genius, he’s also a man of deep sympathy and empathy for those who are lost and vulnerable, but especially under-educated youth of all cultures and stripes” Dyson explained.

“The Sociology of Hip-Hop: Jay-Z” is not the first course at an institution of higher learning that focuses primarily on hip-hop or an extraordinary hip-hop superstar, however it does speak to a growing academic interest in hip-hop culture and more efforts in the classroom to look at the music as a form of social expression and activism. Jay-Z has built his career on being extremely honest about the trappings of the inner city, whether he’s focusing on young men and women being the product of a failed education system or selling drugs as a means of commerce in communities that are jobless. This course is an amazing opportunity to look not only at the conditions that create the urban struggle but also an opportunity for students to think critically about solutions to problems faced by those who live in poverty in American cities. Yeah, it’s that deep.

According to Dyson, there is an incredible amount interest and excitement on campus, where a typical class may have 30-40 slots, over 140 students have attempted to sign up for this class in particular. This is definitely a step in the right direction by Georgetown University, Dyson, and a more positive look for Jay-Z. Hopefully more schools will take note to the global phenomenon that is hip-hop culture and the artistry it represents. [MTVRapFix]