Move over brides and expectant moms: Now college-bound kids want to be showered with gifts also.

Gift registries have long been popular for lots of big life events, and now we can add college to the list.

Big box retailers make it easy for teens to register online for bedding, shower caddies and all the other dorm-room necessities. Target (TGT) rolled out a college registry in June and says thousands of students have already signed up.

The Container Store (TCS) also promotes registries for students going away to college. Last year, registries for college-bound customers surpassed the number that were created for weddings for the first time. Students now account for 57% of all the registries created at the store since March, according to the retailer.

Related: Colleges with the best bang for your buck

Patricia Blanton, 17, is headed to San Francisco State University in the fall and created an online registry at Target to share with family and friends who were already asking what she needed for dorm living.

Patricia stumbled up on Target’s college registry online and put a bed spread, a blender and a garment steamer on the top of her list.

She is having a going away party at the end of the summer, where she expects collect some loot, but many college-bound freshmen hold “trunk parties,” specifically to fill up their suitcases (or trunks) with dorm necessities.

Signing up for a college registry or putting together a less-formal wish list is definitely catching on, said Jeff Gawronski, founder of the online store DormCo.

“It’s being economically smart. You don’t want another teddy bear waving a Class of 2014 flag,” he said.

CNNMoney (New York) First published July 30, 2014: 10:08 AM ET

The Trump administration’s proposed rollback of auto fuel economy and emissions standards looks, on the surface, like a welcome gift to the auto industry. It’s more like federal regulators just handed the auto industry a great big box of chaos.

The best outcome will be earnest negotiations to reach a new set of standards everyone can agree on. What’s likely is a long period of uncertainty. And this at time when the auto industry is pouring billions of dollars into figuring out its future path — one that revolves around electric vehicles, autonomous driving and a big step back from fossil fuels.

Automobiles take years to conceive, design, create and test. The industry requires predictability and long time horizons. Requirements that could drastically change at unpredictable intervals can be far worse than rules that might be a little too demanding like the ones implemented under President Obama in 2012.

Rebecca Lindland is an industry analyst with Kelley Blue Book and was involved in an Obama-era review of the standards. She felt, even then, that some easing of standards was warranted, she said.

The problem with the increases in fuel economy envisioned under the Obama plan was that they were based on the expectation of greater consumer demand for hybrid and electric cars than actually materialized. Also, car buyers have shown an even greater demand for SUVs than anyone expected.

“I would like to see a more gradual, less disruptive easing of fuel economy standards,” Lindland said. The new proposal, she said, will certainly engender bitter fights.

The Trump administration’s proposal would essentially undo the Obama requirements. The proposed changes would freeze fuel economy and emissions standards at 2020 levels and change how emissions are regulated.

Related: Trump administration wants to lower emissions standards for cars

John Graham of Indiana University, who worked on fuel economy regulations during the George W. Bush administration, says some automakers would welcome the Trump administration’s aggressive approach. For automakers that are further behind on meeting the Obama-era standards, any reprieve would be seen as a help.

“Even if the administration loses, they may end up just having a delay in this whole program,” he said.

Automotive fuel economy and emissions requirements are a complex regulatory quilt. Fuel economy is regulated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Tailpipe emissions, however, are regulated, on the federal level, by the Environmental Protection Agency. The state of California also regulates tailpipe emissions in its state, and more than a dozen other states follow its lead.

That awkward mix of regulations worked just fine, more or less, for years. That was until, in 2007, courts ruled that the EPA should regulate emissions of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide, which causes global warming, is different from other auto pollutants in that there is simply no way to reduce it beyond reducing the amount of fuel burned. That put the EPA into the position of, essentially, regulating fuel economy.

California also wanted to regulate C02 emissions. That created the nightmare possibility, for the auto industry, of three conflicting sets of fuel economy requirements. The answer, hammered out through negotiations among NHTSA, the EPA, California and the auto industry, was the auto emissions and fuel economy rules announced in 2012.

Besides halting future increases in fuel economy requirements, the Trump administration also wants to take away California’s right to set its own vehicle emissions standards. This will be the biggest source of conflict.

Related: With the Jaguar I-Pace, electric SUVs are off to a good start

While individual automakers have yet to comment on the proposal, the largest industry groups, the Auto Alliance and the Association of Global Automakers, signaled their hope for a quick negotiated agreement.

“With today’s release of the Administration’s proposals, it’s time for substantive negotiations to begin,” the groups said in a joint statement. “We urge California and the federal government to find a common sense solution that sets continued increases in vehicle efficiency standards while also meeting the needs of America’s drivers.”

In the meantime, automakers will probably continue to increase fuel economy of their new vehicles, said Carla Bailo, head of the Michigan-based Center for Automotive Research.

For one thing, the companies have already invested time and money in designing more efficient vehicles. Consumers have been trained, through years of improving fuel economy, to expect better mileage with each new vehicle they buy.

Also, major automakers are global companies and, in other parts of the world, emissions rules are continuing to tighten. Carmakers don’t dare stop in their tracks — no matter what the current administration in Washington says.

CNNMoney (New York) First published August 2, 2018: 5:31 PM ET

If you’re looking forward to retirement, you’re not alone. Countless workers dream of leaving their jobs behind and enjoying the freedom of unstructured days. But before you pull the trigger on retirement, be sure to tackle the following moves so you don’t come to regret your decision later on.

Hopefully, you spent much of your working years socking away money in an IRA or 401(k). If you’re thinking of retiring, now’s the time to assess your balance and see what it actually means in terms of usable day-to-day cash. It’s easy enough to look at, say, a $500,000 IRA balance and think, “Wow, that’s a lot of money.” But if we apply a 4% yearly withdrawal rate, which has long been the standard, that $500,000 translates into just $20,000 of annual income, give or take some adjustments for inflation.

Of course, that figure doesn’t account for other income sources you might have at your disposal, like rental income or earnings from a part-time job. It also doesn’t factor in Social Security. The point, however, is to look past the figure you see on your retirement plan statement and determine how much income it’ll actually give you in practice.

Maybe you’re used to following a budget and tracking your spending diligently. While that’s certainly a positive habit to celebrate, once you stop working, your expenses are likely to change — for better and for worse. While you might save money on things like commuting and transportation (retiring might allow you to downsize from a two-vehicle household to a single vehicle, thereby saving money on maintenance and insurance costs), you might spend more money on things like leisure, since you’ll have additional free time on your hands.

Before you retire, create a new budget that details the expenses you expect to encounter once your career comes to a close. You’ll probably have to tweak that budget as you go along, but having one in place will give you a good sense of whether your nest egg will suffice during your golden years, or whether you’ll need to save more money before making your retirement official.

We all know that healthcare can be expensive at any stage of life, but you may be shocked to learn that the average 65-year-old man today will spend $189,687 on medical care throughout retirement, while the average 65-year-old woman will spend $214,565. Ouch. Worse yet, these figures don’t account for long-term care — something 70% of seniors 65 and over are statistically likely to need.

The good news, however, is that the more you educate yourself on what senior healthcare costs might look like, the better equipped you’ll be to manage and keep them to a minimum. Along these lines, it pays to look into long-term care insurance, which can help defray some of the astronomical costs seniors face when they inevitably wind up needing nursing home or assisted living care.

If you’re like most seniors, Social Security will come to provide a large portion of your retirement income. But while your benefits themselves are calculated based on how much you earn during your career, the age at which you first file for them can cause that number to go up, go down, or stay the same. That’s why it’s important to create a strategy for claiming benefits rather than go in blind.

For example, if you file for benefits at your full retirement age, which is either 66, 67, or 66 and a certain number of months, you’ll get the full monthly benefit you’re entitled to based on your work history. If you delay past full retirement age, your benefits will get a boost. And if you file before full retirement age, you’ll face a reduction in benefits, but you’ll also get your money sooner. There’s no right or wrong answer when it comes to choosing a filing age, but what you should do is know your full retirement age and understand the consequences of claiming benefits at various points in time.

Though the idea of having all the free time in the world might seem appealing, once you find yourself in that situation, the reality might hit you hard. The truth is that it’s difficult to go from a full-time work schedule to a total lack of structure, which explains why so many retirees ultimately fall victim to depression.

If you’d rather avoid that fate, come up with a plan for spending your newfound free time, and make sure it aligns with your budget and income. You might think you’ll go golfing twice a week and travel once a month, but if your savings can’t support that lifestyle, you’ll need to come up with a different plan.

Related links:

• Motley Fool Issues Rare Triple-Buy Alert

• This Stock Could Be Like Buying Amazon in 1997

• 7 of 8 People Are Clueless About This Trillion-Dollar Market

Retirement can be an exciting and fulfilling period of life, provided you prepare for it. Make these key moves before calling it quits on the work front, and with any luck, you’ll wind up making the most of your golden years.

CNNMoney (New York) First published September 17, 2018: 9:39 AM ET

401(k) plans can be the most useful tool you have in saving for retirement.

With these tax-favored retirement accounts featuring ultra-high contribution limits of $18,500 for those who are younger than 50 and $24,500 for those who are 50 or older in 2018, well-off workers often seek to max out their annual 401(k) contributions.

Moreover, the fact that many employers add their own matching contributions to the money that you set aside from your own salary is just icing on the cake for retirement savers.

Yet there’s a trap for those unwary supersavers who seek to set aside as much as they possibly can in a 401(k). If you’re not careful with how you manage your savings over the course of the year, you can end up missing out on a portion of the employer matches that you’d otherwise be entitled to receive. Fortunately, it’s not hard to find a way around this problem once you’re aware of it, but if you don’t act, it can cost you thousands of dollars in missed matching contributions.

Many employers choose to provide matching contributions in order to give their workers more incentive to save toward retirement in their 401(k) accounts. Typically, an employer that offers matching contributions will pick a certain percentage of your salary that it will match, along with the proportion of your own contributions it will match. Some employers match your contributions on a dollar-for-dollar basis up to a certain maximum amount, while others will provide a different amount, such as $0.50 for every $1 you contribute.

For example, one common matching provision involves employers matching the first 6% of your salary, either with $0.50 or $1 for every $1 in your own contribution. So, if you make $60,000 and get paid once a month, you could choose to contribute 6% of your $5,000 monthly paycheck, or $300. Your employer would then match that with an employer contribution of $150 or $300, depending on the matching provision. Over the course of the year, that’d add up to contributions of $3,600 from you and either $1,800 or $3,600 more from your employer in the form of matching.

However, you could save a lot more than $3,600 if you wanted to. If you set aside 30% of your pay, you’d have total annual contributions of $18,000 — just below the $18,500 maximum for 2018. You’d still get the same match, though, because it applies only to the first 6% you save in your 401(k).

Neither of the two examples above risks losing any employer matching contributions. But a potential problem comes in if you max out your 401(k) early. That’s because once you hit the yearly contribution maximum, your employer will stop taking money out of your paycheck to go toward your 401(k). In some cases, employers also then stop the match — they haven’t yet matched the given percentage of salary.

For example, take the same example above where you save 30% of your salary, but assume that you make $92,500 instead of $60,000. Your monthly pay of just over $7,700 would lead to monthly contributions of $2,312.50, and if you had a dollar-for-dollar match on the first 6% of salary, you’d receive $462.50 in matching contributions. However, at that rate, you’d hit the $18,500 maximum eight months into the year. Beginning in September, your employer would no longer take 401(k) contributions out of your check, and you’d stop getting the $462.50 per month match. For the year, you’d get only eight months’ worth of matching, or $3,700, rather than the $5,550 you should have gotten.

To avoid this situation, you have to be smart about how much you save. Specifically, you need to time things so that you max out your 401(k) when you get your last paycheck of the year. That way, you’ll get the full match.

In the above example, if you divide the $18,500 maximum contribution by the $92,500 salary, you get 20%. So to max out your 401(k) with perfect timing, you’ll want to set your contribution at 20% of salary instead of 30%. By doing so, you’d contribute about $1,540 per month, and that’d be enough to get the same $462.50 monthly match. At the end of 12 months, you’d have contributed the same $18,500 maximum, but you’d also have received the full $5,550 available in matching contributions.

Related links:

• Motley Fool Issues Rare Triple-Buy Alert

• This Stock Could Be Like Buying Amazon in 1997

• 7 of 8 People Are Clueless About This Trillion-Dollar Market

401(k) plans are valuable, but you have to know the tricks that can cheat you out of valuable benefits. If you want to max out your 401(k), be sure to do so in a way that avoids missing out on the full amount of the employer match that you deserve.

CNNMoney (New York) First published June 4, 2018: 10:06 AM ET

The tax bills passed by the House and the now the Senate include slightly more generous benefits for parents. Unless their children are undocumented immigrants.

Currently, non-citizens filing taxes using an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, or ITIN, are allowed to claim the child tax credit, which gives back up to $1,000 per child under age 17. In tax year 2013, according to the Government Accountability Office, 4.4 million ITIN filers claimed child tax credits worth $6 billion.

Under both the House and Senate versions of the Republican tax bill, ITIN filers — most of whom are undocumented — would need to provide Social Security numbers for each child in order to claim the refundable part of the credit, which kicks in when the credit exceeds the filer’s total tax liability. The Senate version would require an Social Security number for the regular credit as well.

According to Samantha Vargas Poppe of the Latino advocacy group UnidosUS, the change would directly impact about a million undocumented children. But it could also hurt those born in the United States whose non-citizen siblings are no longer eligible for the credit. That income hit would impact the whole family.

Related: Here’s what’s in the Senate’s tax bill — and how it differs from the House’s

“These credits keep folks out of poverty,” Poppe says. “It’s just not a place for immigration enforcement. These are kids.”

Undocumented immigrants and their employers paid about $13 billion in payroll taxes in 2010, the most recent year for which the Social Security Administration has released figures. Many also pay Social Security taxes, sales taxes, and property taxes, but are not eligible for most federal programs, including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid or subsidies under the Affordable Care Act.

For U.S. citizens, the House bill increases the value of the child tax credit from $1,000 to $1,600. The Senate bill doubles it to $2,000. Both bills increase the income threshold at which taxpayers will be eligible to claim it.

In addition, the House bill tightens up the rules for the Earned Income Tax Credit in such a way that immigrants covered by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program will no longer be able to receive the credit when their work authorization expires. The Trump administration announced in September its decision to terminate the program, which means those immigrants will lose their protected status over the next few years unless Congress intervenes.

The House bill would also require a Social Security number for the American Opportunity Tax Credit, which is worth $2,500 annually towards the first four years of higher education expenses. In 2013, ITIN filers claimed $204 million through this credit.

The Senate bill makes no changes to these credits.

Related: 13 ways the tax bills would affect people

Conservatives have long sought these restrictions, which they say are necessary to guard against tax fraud. The anti-immigration Center for Immigration Studies has also argued that allowing undocumented immigrants to receive refundable tax credits violates provisions of the welfare reforms of 1996 that prohibit undocumented immigrants from receiving most federal benefits.

Luke Messer, a Republican representative for Indiana, introduced legislation that would have eliminated child tax credit eligibility for ITIN filers earlier this year.

“We can’t continue to reward people who come to our country illegally, while those who work hard and play by the rules struggle to get ahead,” he said in a press release in October pushing for the bill’s inclusion in tax reform measures.

Democrats and a long list of immigrants rights advocacy groups have opposed carving undocumented children out of the child tax credit, saying it will increase child poverty.

Correction: Luke Messer is a Republican representative from Indiana. An earlier version of this story said he represented Illinois.

CNNMoney (New York) First published December 4, 2017: 5:58 AM ET

The government has stopped openly sharing your personal information from the Obamacare website with private companies.

Earlier this week, the government came under fire after the Associated Press showed that Healthcare.gov was relaying users’ personal information, such as zip code, income level, pregnancy status and whether or not you are a smoker.

That information was being shared with Google (GOOG), Twitter (TWTR), Yahoo (YHOO) and other companies that track people online, like the advertisement display service DoubleClick.

The evidence was on the website code itself.

But on Friday, CNNMoney read the code and found that Healthcare.gov was no longer relaying personal information to DoubleClick and others.

Obama administration officials did not respond to requests for comment on Friday.

But in a statement Saturday, a top official at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services wrote that the agency has added “a layer of encryption that reduces the information available to the third party tools we use from our URLs.”

The change followed an internal review of Healthcare.gov’s privacy policies, marketplace CEO Kevin Counihan wrote.

After the initial reports about the privacy problems, Republican Senators Orrin Hatch and Chuck Grassley wrote a letter to the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services demanding answers.

Citing Healthcare.gov’s many technology glitches, they wrote: “This new information is extremely concerning, not only because it violates the privacy of millions of Americans, but because it may potentially compromise their security.”

To be fair, the software tools used by Healthcare.gov were popular services that help improve a website’s design (CNNMoney uses them).

But health officials would not explain why DoubleClick, a company in the advertising industry that already tracks people’s browsing habits, should be allowed to know whether users smoke or are pregnant.

For its part, Google told CNNMoney it doesn’t desire your personal health information anyway.

“We don’t want and don’t use that kind of data,” said Andrea Faville, a Google spokeswoman. “And we don’t allow DoubleClick systems to be used to target ads based on health or medical history information.”

Related: Obamacare employer mandate is eased

When CNNMoney learned that the Health and Human Services Department was sending information to third parties in 2013, HHS would only assure that the data being shared with DoubleClick and others is transmitted to them securely.

That approach was criticized by privacy advocates such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Noah Lang, CEO of a health insurance startup Stride Health, said use of those tracking tools was sloppy and uncalled for.

“I don’t think it’s necessary to build a great user experience,” he said. “Should they be sending identifying information to a third-party advertiser? The pretty clear answer there is no. It’s a massive breach of personal privacy.”

When CNNMoney read through the computer code on the Healthcare.gov website on Friday, certain lines of code that indicated the website was sending such personal information during the sign-up process were gone.

Cooper Quintin, a staff technologist at EFF, confirmed that the code was gone.

“That’s a great first step for them to take,” he said.

While Healthcare.gov is no longer relaying your personal information on the front end, there’s no telling what information might get shared once it is stored in the government’s computers, however.

–CNN’s Jim Acosta contributed to this report.

CNNMoney (New York) First published January 23, 2015: 4:48 PM ET

Students entering college this year could pay more than $190,000 for a bachelor’s degree. Meanwhile, others will pay next to nothing.

Most people will fall somewhere in between.

But how much is too much?

CNN asked six experts to weigh in, including the head of a public university, financial aid officers, and student loan lenders.

Related: 7 ways to pay for college

The answer depends on personal circumstances like your family’s finances and values. It also depends on where you live and what you’ll study.

“It seems like something that should have a set cost, but it’s a complicated question,” said Carol Folt, the Chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Here are a few tips to help you figure out your number:

The experts agreed that rather than worrying about the total price tag, you should focus on how much debt you’ll take on, and your ability to pay it back.

“Debt is what can burden you going forward and can limit your life choices,” Folt said.

An oft-cited rule of thumb is to borrow no more than what you’ll earn the first year after graduation.

But in order to figure that out, you’ll need to know how much you’ll be earning. That can be tough to pin down.

One recent survey found that the average starting salary for an entry-level position for someone with a bachelor’s degree this year is $50,000.

Related: Why your financial aid award is smaller than you expected

Tech or science fields may earn bigger paychecks. But those who pursue a more volatile career or go on to graduate school may want to borrow less money, said Kal Chany, the author of Paying for College Without Going Broke.

To get a better sense of what different majors may pay, check out this data from the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce on lifetime earnings. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has data on lifetime earnings by career.

A third source, the government’s College Scorecard, shows the median earnings of graduates by school, 10 years after entering college. (It only considers students who received federal financial aid.)

Experts told CNN that earnings stats can be “opaque,” “quite misleading,” and should be taken “with a grain of salt.”

But it can at least give you a good starting point on figuring out what kind of earning potential you can expect with your degree, and get you started on running some numbers.

“It doesn’t have to be an exact thing. It still helps to think about these ideas,” Chany said.

If you have no idea what you’ll major in or what kind of job you’ll pursue, here’s one way to think about you’re borrowing limit: The government allows dependent students pursuing a bachelor’s degree to borrow up to $31,000 in federal loans.

“If that’s what the government allows, there’s reason to believe that’s a safe amount,” said Kathy Ruby, a college finance consultant at College Coach and former financial aid officer at St. Olaf College and Shippensburg University.

Any additional borrowing will likely have to be in a parent’s name. They’ll want to think about how much they have saved for retirement, whether their home is paid off, and how many other children are going to college when taking out debt, Chany said.

It’s important to understand how much your debt will cost you. You’ll be paying back more than what your borrow because of interest.

Interest rates on federal loans change each year. (Last year, the interest rate on undergraduate loans was 4.45%.)

But here’s a rough estimate from Joe DePaulo, CEO of lender College Ave Student Loans.

For every $10,000 you borrow in federal loans, you’ll owe about $100 a month for 10 years. So if you borrow $30,000, you’re looking at a monthly student loan payment of $300, give or take.

In this case, the first $300 of your monthly take-home pay will be gone before you can pay for anything else.

Related: The best ways to borrow money for college, if you have to

This monthly payment could be lower since there are several different loan repayment plans. But paying less in the beginning means you’ll be paying more later on.

Here’s another rule of thumb from Angela Galardi Ceresnie, the COO of student lender Climb Credit: Your monthly loan payment should be no more than 10% of your monthly take-home pay.

People with a college degree earn more over the course of their career than those without one. But if you start and don’t finish college, some of the earnings bump will likely be lost.

Less than half of the people who go to college actually should, said Bryan Caplan, an economist and author of The Case Against Education.

The rest either choose a low-paying major or don’t finish their degree, so it’s not worth their time and money, he said.

“If you just think of education like any other investment, the success rate is crucial,” Caplan said.

If you didn’t do well in high school and scored low on the SATs, it might mean you shouldn’t pay anything for a four-year degree.

CNNMoney (New York) First published May 21, 2018: 10:59 AM ET

Global trade tensions have put automakers under pressure. But Volkswagen says new emission tests in Europe pose the biggest threat to its business.

“We cannot rest on our laurels because great challenges lie ahead of us in the coming quarters — especially regarding the transition to the new … test procedure,” CEO Herbert Diess said in a statement Wednesday.

The tests presents a “titanic task” and “the biggest [sales] volume and earnings risk,” the CEO said, according to a presentation prepared for reporters. Diess warned that factories could be closed temporarily, and some new models could be delayed.

Volkswagen (VLKAF) isn’t alone. Other automakers in Europe are struggling to prepare for the tests, which were introduced in late 2017. Industry groups have reported that testing bottlenecks are causing delays in certification.

The new test, called the Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP), measures fuel consumption and emissions of CO2 and pollutants in conditions that simulate real-world driving scenarios.

It’s billed as a major improvement on the previous test, which was designed in the 1980s and failed to detect Volkswagen’s rigging of its diesel emissions.

The new tests are performed in independent labs and a single examination can take days to set up. Test facilities are running at 100% capacity and operating 24 hours a day, but that’s not enough to avoid delays, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association.

“Neither manufacturers nor approval authorities have had sufficient time to prepare adequately,” the association said in a statement. “The process of obtaining European Union approval has slowed down, resulting in planned [car] production being stopped or delayed.”

Related: What’s next for Fiat Chrysler?

All new car models sold across the 28 member states in the European Union must be certified by September. Even after regulators approve a model, vehicles can be randomly tested as they roll off the factory floor.

Auto production is already suffering.

The British Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders reported this week that domestic production of cars for the UK market dropped 47% in June. It said the new emission tests were contributing to the slowdown.

Mike Hawes, CEO of the industry group, said the tests were one factor that had contributed to a “perfect storm” for automakers, which are also worried about the impact of Brexit.

Volkswagen said Wednesday that it delivered 5.5 million cars in the first half of 2018, an increase of 7% over the previous year.

Sales increased 3.5% to €119.4 billion ($139.5 billion) and operating profit rose nearly 10% to €9.8 billion ($11.5 billion). The company took a €1.6 billion ($1.9 billion) charge related to the diesel scandal.

Volkswagen warned that its financial performance could be volatile in the second half of the year because of the emission tests. Shares in the automaker dropped 3%.

CNNMoney (London) First published August 1, 2018: 9:38 AM ET

Recent graduates still covet jobs on Wall Street or at prestigious consulting firms. But high-profile tech companies are also on their short lists of potential employers.

Amazon, for example, shot up in popularity among business and engineering students, according to a new survey from Universum, a research and consulting firm.

The online retail giant ranked number 13 on this year’s list of most desirable employers for business students, up from number 26 last year. It also increased its profile among engineering students, rising to the 10th spot from number 13 last year.

“Amazon is climbing the list like crazy,” says Universum’s Jonna Sjövall, managing director, Americas. “It’s stealing votes from Facebook, Google, and Apple.”

The interest in tech companies isn’t new. Google has held onto the number one spot for both business and engineering students on Universum’s list for years, thanks to its high-profile brand, perk-laden workplace and reputation for providing newly minted grads with challenging projects.

World’s top employers for new grads: See the full list

Other high-ranking technology companies on the list for grads included Apple, which took the seventh spot, and Microsoft, which came in 10th.

Goldman Sachs ranked second on the list, one of only two Wall Street firms to make the top 10. (JPMorgan Chase took the eighth spot.) Goldman Sachs plans to hire more undergrads this year than last, including many that complete its summer intern program. Entry-level workers there enjoy an intellectually stimulating environment, with plenty of opportunity to learn and grow on the job.

“We seek out people with all types of skills, interests, and experiences,” says spokeswoman Leslie Shribman. “For us, it’s about bringing together people who are curious, collaborative and have the drive to make things possible for our clients and communities.”

All of the Big Four accounting firms were among those most desired by grads, with Ernst & Young, Deloitte, KPMG, and PwC ranking third through sixth, respectively.

Last year KPMG hired 3,000 interns and 3,000 full-time employees, and it has similar plans this year. But the type of entry-level workers the firm looks for is changing.

“We’re still hiring students with the typical accounting degrees,” says James Powell, KPMG’s partner-in-charge of recruiting and faculty relations. “But we’re also seeing more individuals with management systems degrees, IT degrees, and engineering. These are skill sets that we wouldn’t have looked at a few years ago.”

Big-name consulting firms have been climbing the list in recent years, with McKinsey cracking the top 10 to appear in the ninth spot on the list, up from 11th last year.

McKinsey also plans to boost hiring this year, and even entry-level workers have the opportunity to work on big projects and gain a lot of experience quickly.

“People can work nearly anywhere if they join McKinsey, since we have locations where many competitors do not, across Africa, Central Europe, and the Middle East, for example,” say Caitlin Storhaug, McKinsey’s head of global recruiting communications.

Correction: An earlier version of this story listed Amazon as number 17 on Universum’s list of the most desirable employers for business students. The company ranked 13 on this year’s list.

CNNMoney (New York) First published September 19, 2018: 7:00 AM ET