What Are the Best Careers for Paying Back Student Loans Fastest?

You always hear about the importance of a college education.

But what may be even more important is what you choose to study.

New research by Bankrate.com delves into the best fields to go into based on how long it will take to pay back student loans (based on 6% interest).

Bankrate drew its conclusions by taking into account a variety of factors: cost to obtain the degree in that field, median pay, repaying the loan based on 10% of salary going towards it and minimum number of years needed to attain a degree in each field.

The best field is advertising, marketing and promotions. If you land a job in one of those, it will ‘only’ take 5.83 years to pay off your loan, easily topping the 7.08 years it will take to return the loan if you become an economist.

The worst field is marriage and family therapist. You’ll probably wind up needing therapy after discovering it takes a whopping 34.67 years to repay your loan. Basically, it’s a race to see if you can retire or repay the loan first.

Here’s a look at the rankings for how long it would take to pay off student loans for each field:

1. Advertising, marketing and promotions – 5.83 years
2. Economist – 7.08 years
3. Civil engineer -- 8.50 years
4. Political scientist -- 8.58 years
5. Pharmacist -- 10.83 years
6. Microbiologist -- 10.83 years
7. Physician: Family or general practitioner -- 10.92 years
8. Accountant -- 11.5 years
9. Market research analyst -- 12.42 years
10. Lawyer -- 13.33 years