Top 10 Worst-Paying Degrees

Following your dreams is great, but let’s be realistic: You and your parents are investing tens of thousands of dollars in this endeavor, and you’d all like to see it pay off. PayScale.com recently released its 2010 list of undergrad degrees by salary. Here are the ones that rake in the least amount of dough.

10^th Worst-Paying Degree: Special Education
Midcareer median pay: $53,800
You won’t make much money, but you’ll probably have a lot of unique experiences.

9^th Worst-Paying Degree: Recreation and Leisure Studies
Midcareer median pay: $53,200
Yeah, learn how to make sure everyone else around you is having fun while you work.

8^th Worst-Paying Degree: Theology
Midcareer median pay: $51,300
Your career is in the hands of a higher power.

7^th Worst-Paying Degree: Paralegal Studies/Law
Midcareer median pay: $51,300
Lawyers are greedy. They don’t pay their assistants well.

6^th Worst-Paying Degree: Horticulture
Midcareer median pay: $50,800
So you’re a farmer with student debt? Yee-haw!

5^th Worst-Paying Degree: Culinary Arts
Midcareer median pay: $50,600
A classic example of ruining something you love by making a career out of it. Bad hours, bad pay, and the last thing you’ll want to do in your free time is cook … even though you’ve gotta eat!

4^th Worst-Paying Degree: Athletic Training

Midcareer median pay: $45,700

If physical therapy is a cop-out for med school, is athletic training a cop-out for physical therapy?

3^rd Worst-Paying Degree: Social Work
Midcareer median pay: $44,900
Do they let you take yourself on as a poverty case? A disheartening example of “no good deed goes unpunished.”

2^nd Worst-Paying Degree: Elementary Education
Midcareer median pay: $44,400
It’s kinda like a regular education degree but with more runny noses and less money.

No. 1 Worst-Paying Degree: Child and Family Studies
Midcareer median pay: $38,400
Everyone has been a child, and everyone has a family -- do you really need to get a degree for it?