This summer, the Georgetown Public Policy Institute released a study (pdf here) with a surprising finding: During the recent recession years, new theater graduates have had lower rates of unemployment than their fellow arts grads: 6.4 percent compared to film/video/photography's 11.4 percent.

In fact, recent theater graduates had lower rates of unemployment than many of their fellow degree-holders in other, more "practical" fields: computer science (8.7 percent), information systems (14.7 percent), electrical engineering (7.6 percent), and business management (7.8 percent).

Show that to your parents when they tell you to major in something "real."

But here's the hitch—recent drama grads are more employed (more or less), but they're at the bottom of the earnings rankings, pulling in $25,000 a year.

Because even during recessions, restaurants run off the sweat of aspiring actors.