Types of Degrees Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many fashion merchandising graduations there were for each degree level during the last year for which data was available.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Bachelor’s Degree	1,951
Associate Degree	1,072
Master’s Degree	41
Basic Certificate	30
Undergraduate Certificate	12

What Majors Need to Know

O*NET surveyed people in occupations related to fashion merchandising and asked them what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important for their jobs. The responses were rated on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being most important.

Knowledge Areas for Fashion Merchandising Majors

This major prepares you for careers in which these knowledge areas are important:

• Sales and Marketing - Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
• Computers and Electronics - Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.

Skills for Fashion Merchandising Majors

fashion merchandising majors are found most commonly in careers in which the following skills are important:

• Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Persuasion - Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
• Negotiation - Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.

Abilities for Fashion Merchandising Majors

As a fashion merchandising major, you will find yourself needing the following abilities:

• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
• Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.

What Can You Do With a Major?

People with a fashion merchandising degree often go into the following careers:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Except Technical and Scientific Products	5.2%	$58,510

Who Is Getting a Bachelor’s Degree in ?

The major attracts more women than men. About 91% of the recent graduates in this field are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of fashion merchandising majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	97
Black or African American	230
Hispanic or Latino	300
White	1,087
International Students	111
Other Races/Ethnicities	126

Geographic Diversity

Americans aren’t the only ones with an interest in Fashion Merchandising. About 5.7% of those with this major are international students.

How Much Do Majors Make?

Salaries According to BLS

Fashion Merchandising majors often go into careers with median salaries of $69,480. This median refers to all degree levels, so the salary for a person with just a bachelor’s degree may be a little less and the one for a person with an advanced degree may be a little more.

To put that into context, according to BLS data from the first quarter of 2020, the typical high school graduate makes between $30,000 and $57,900 a year (25th through 75th percentile). The average person with a bachelor’s degree (any field) makes between $45,600 and $99,000. Advanced degree holders make the most with salaries between $55,600 and $125,400.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to

Some degrees associated with fashion merchandising may require an advanced degree, while others may not even require a bachelor’s in the field. In general, the more advanced your degree the more career options will open up to you. However, there is significant time and money that needs to be invested into your education so weigh the pros and cons.

How much schooling do you really need to compete in today’s job market? People currently working in careers related to fashion merchandising have obtained the following education levels.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
Less than a High School Diploma	6.2%
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	22.5%
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	4.9%
Some College Courses	3.7%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	5.3%
Bachelor’s Degree	61.3%
Post-Master’s Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Master’s degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees at the doctoral level.	0.5%

Online Programs

The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	14	0
Certificate (2-4 Years)	0	0
Associate’s Degree	44	7
Bachelor’s Degree	2	0
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	7	3
Post-Master’s	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Is a Degree in Worth It?

The median salary for a fashion merchandising grad is $69,480 per year. This is based on the weighted average of the most common careers associated with the major.

This is 74% more than the average salary for an individual holding a high school degree. This adds up to a gain of about $591,600 after 20 years!

Majors Related to

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to fashion merchandising.

Major	Number of Grads
Business and Personal/Financial Services Marketing Operations	700
Other Specialized Merchandising, Sales, and Marketing Operations	250
Special Products Marketing Operations	205
Tourism and Travel Services Marketing Operations	143
Apparel and Accessories Marketing Operations	97
Hospitality and Recreation Marketing Operations	57
Vehicle and Vehicle Parts and Accessories Marketing Operations	45
Tourism Promotion Operations	40
Auctioneering	25

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020
• Image Credit: By Qfamily under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.