Which College Major Has the Highest IQ?

Sure, everyone thinks his college major is best, but until now, we were forced to go by cocktail party conversation and/or odds of post-graduation employment for metrics. Now, thanks to an infographic from Visual.ly, we can parse majors by IQ, too.

This graphic lists majors according to average IQ, and then offers a few famous examples from each. As you might expect, the celebrity examples tend to be higher than the average, so that while philosophy majors come in at an average IQ of 129, famous philosophy major Steve Martin is listed as having an IQ of 142. (Other oddities: not only is Gene Simmons’s IQ of 117 higher than his major’s average of 110, but that major was … education.)

Of course, none of this is meant to be taken too seriously. There’s plenty of debate as to how well IQ tests really measure intelligence. Recent research shows that there might be three separate components of intelligence including short-term memory, reasoning, and verbal recall. Lifestyle factors, such as playing video games (good for short-term memory and reasoning) and smoking (bad for everything) might also contribute to a person’s intelligence.

Still, if you’re looking for a way to show off during that next party conversation, it’s worth finding out how your major stacks up against the others — and how your IQ measures against the average.

What Does Your College Major Say About Your IQ? infographic

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