3 answers
Grant’s Answer
According to Career Cast, it pays big to be in medicine or law. However, it's also incredibly expensive to enter those fields. Education can costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. If you're going to go for one of those careers, my advice is to make sure you're very passionate about what you're studying.
Alternatively, computer science and IT are high paying and don't require as much formal education. Typically a Bachelor's degree is enough to get a great paying job. Check out this article about top paying tech jobs.
So, these jobs will "get you ahead" of other people, but in reality, there will always be people who are ahead of you and me, and everyone else. My advice isn't to worry about if you're ahead of other people. Rather, focus on setting goals and being honest about what makes you happy. Money is important for living a comfortable life but it definitely won't make you happy.
http://www.businessinsider.com/14-highest-paying-tech-jobs-in-2015-2015-2
http://www.careercast.com/jobs-rated/best-paying-jobs-2014
Wayne’s Answer
(1) Business - Entrepreneurship. This type of major/discipline will help you understand the fundamentals of operating a business and not just a hobby. With an entrepreneur focus, you'll be focused on solving problems with new solutions and being ahead on emerging markets.
(2) If you want to know how humans fundamentally behave and stay ahead in that way, many universities do have majors now focused on user experience / human interaction. This will help you ask the right questions and understand the human psyche and what motivates people.
(3) Technology /CS. We're a fast digital world, leaving behind an analog age. Understanding technology is probably the shortest way of becoming an innovator by addressing everyday problems by leveraging technology to answer.
A major is simply a gateway to provide a framework to how to tackle a problem and form your thinking. All majors can technically lead to you being at the forefront of an industry or other people. Stay open minded and creative with your thinking. Good luck with your journey!
Russ’s Answer
A human-computer interaction degree is a proper degree for a UX professional.
Motion graphics and graphic design are also related to UX.
However, if you really want to be ahead of others you may opt to study programming, computer science and HCI (human-computer interaction).
Russ recommends the following next steps: