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Picking a college major isn't easy with the number of possible degrees you can receive nowadays.
Some of the most popular majors undergraduates pursue are business, nursing, teaching, accounting, and biology. According to 24/7 Wall St, "degrees in these fields prepare students for careers in essential industries like health care, education, and retail, where job opportunities are available in cities and towns across the country."
Although those degrees are more popular than others, each state has an unusually popular degree that does not fall under one of those categories.
24/7 Wall St sought out to find the most unusually popular degree in each state.
To find the most unique college degree, they "reviewed data on the share of adults 25 years and older by detailed undergraduate major from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2019 American Community Survey Public Use Microdata Sample."
Here is how each unique college major was ranked:
"According to their location quotient — the percentage of adults within a state with a certain bachelor’s degree relative to the percentage of adults with the respective degree nationwide — a metric used to measure relative concentration within a specific geography."
So, what is the most unusually popular degree in Illinois?
Court reporting.
According to the report, here are some statistics of a court reporting degree:
- Concentration of adults with the degree: 4.3 times higher than nationwide
- Share of adults with the degree: .05% in the state, .01% nationwide
- Avg. annual earnings for workers with the degree: $27,058 in the state, $45,223 nationwide
Click here to see every state's most unusual college degree.