Today, I found that one company had actually tried to quantify the wage differential between graduates of one college versus another. I know that many parents of current and prospective college students may be drawn to this information, so here is the place to go: http://www.payscale.com/best-colleges.
According to the company description on their Web site, PayScale, the Seattle-based company that posted these reports, owns the largest database of online employee salary data in the world. In preparing their college graduate reports PayScale collected data from bachelor degree holders with less than 5.5 years of work experience as well as those with 10 or more years of work experience, all in full-time employment. Graduates who held advanced degrees and are either self-employed or not working full-time were excluded from their analysis. PayScale provided salary information for the Best Engineering Colleges, Best Ivy League Schools, Top Liberal Arts Colleges, Top Party Schools and Top State Universities. They did not consider student indebtedness or "bang for the buck," as college value reports do. They stuck to salary potential. I´ll share some observations.
For the Best Engineering Colleges, MIT and Cal Tech ranked first and second in median salary. That should be no surprise; these are the schools ranked highest by bright and serious engineering students and scholars. But, there were surprises further down the list: Brooklyn Poly, now the engineering school of New York University ranked fourth and Cooper Union, also in New York, ranked fifth. I had to wonder if geography had something to do with the salary rankings; a data set of graduates heavily weighted towards New Yorkers would be more likely to show higher salaries than a data set of graduates who primarily work in, for instance, the southern or midwestern United States. The median mid-career salary for a Brooklyn Poly grad or a Cooper Union grad was $8,000 higher than for a Georgia Tech grad.
There are two lessons: consider where you live and want to work and, consider the long term cost of the school against long term salary potential. The Cooper Union graduate who paid no tuition might be earning $12,000 less than the MIT grad, but he might have more mobility in the job market, and more disposable income, because he has less debt.
I also looked clicked between the Ivy League and state university tables and compared the salaries as if I would compare MIT to Cooper Union. I learned that Cal-Berkeley graduates had a higher median mid-career salary than Cornell, Brown or Columbia graduates. Again, I have to ask myself if geography is a factor that influences salary. Ninety two percent of Cal-Berkeley students come from California, and I´d have no doubt most of the university´s 425,000 alumni decided to stay there. Again, I learn the same lesson as I did from looking at the engineering schools: consider work location and long-term educational debt against salary potential.
I also realize that students and parents choosing between selective schools do not always consider the top private college against the top public or free-tuition institution; they often compare two or more private colleges against each other. So I took a look at the top liberal arts schools in PayScale´s analysis. Bucknell University is number one; their graduates earn a median salary of $110,000 after 10 years—keep in mind, this is only graduates without advanced degrees.
However, Bucknell offers majors in accounting, education and engineering, pre-professional majors not usually found at a liberal arts college, while Colgate and Amherst, ranked second and third, do not offer these majors. I do not know if PayScale considered the mix of majors at each school, but apples should be compared to apples—liberal arts schools which offer do not offer undergraduate pre-professional degrees—not to oranges. Because of its location and mix of majors, Bucknell is more likely to be considered against Lafayette or Lehigh, than either Colgate or Amherst.
I know it´s very easy to consider salary potential as a be-all, end-all when comparing schools, especially when reliable data is available. But parents and students must look beyond these numbers and so must corporate America. It´s disheartening to find out that perception is reality, and the reality has been quantified: those graduates who could afford to attend one of the top private schools on these lists are likely to earn higher entry level salaries than those who could not.
Contact Stuart Nachbar at httop://www.EducatedQuest.com, a blog on education politics, policy and technology or read about his first book, The Sex Ed Chronicles, a novel on education and politics in 1980 New Jersey, at http://www.SexEdChronicles.com.
According to the company description on their Web site, PayScale, the Seattle-based company that posted these reports, owns the largest database of online employee salary data in the world. In preparing their college graduate reports PayScale collected data from bachelor degree holders with less than 5.5 years of work experience as well as those with 10 or more years of work experience, all in full-time employment. Graduates who held advanced degrees and are either self-employed or not working full-time were excluded from their analysis. PayScale provided salary information for the Best Engineering Colleges, Best Ivy League Schools, Top Liberal Arts Colleges, Top Party Schools and Top State Universities. They did not consider student indebtedness or "bang for the buck," as college value reports do. They stuck to salary potential. I´ll share some observations.
For the Best Engineering Colleges, MIT and Cal Tech ranked first and second in median salary. That should be no surprise; these are the schools ranked highest by bright and serious engineering students and scholars. But, there were surprises further down the list: Brooklyn Poly, now the engineering school of New York University ranked fourth and Cooper Union, also in New York, ranked fifth. I had to wonder if geography had something to do with the salary rankings; a data set of graduates heavily weighted towards New Yorkers would be more likely to show higher salaries than a data set of graduates who primarily work in, for instance, the southern or midwestern United States. The median mid-career salary for a Brooklyn Poly grad or a Cooper Union grad was $8,000 higher than for a Georgia Tech grad.
There are two lessons: consider where you live and want to work and, consider the long term cost of the school against long term salary potential. The Cooper Union graduate who paid no tuition might be earning $12,000 less than the MIT grad, but he might have more mobility in the job market, and more disposable income, because he has less debt.
I also looked clicked between the Ivy League and state university tables and compared the salaries as if I would compare MIT to Cooper Union. I learned that Cal-Berkeley graduates had a higher median mid-career salary than Cornell, Brown or Columbia graduates. Again, I have to ask myself if geography is a factor that influences salary. Ninety two percent of Cal-Berkeley students come from California, and I´d have no doubt most of the university´s 425,000 alumni decided to stay there. Again, I learn the same lesson as I did from looking at the engineering schools: consider work location and long-term educational debt against salary potential.
I also realize that students and parents choosing between selective schools do not always consider the top private college against the top public or free-tuition institution; they often compare two or more private colleges against each other. So I took a look at the top liberal arts schools in PayScale´s analysis. Bucknell University is number one; their graduates earn a median salary of $110,000 after 10 years—keep in mind, this is only graduates without advanced degrees.
However, Bucknell offers majors in accounting, education and engineering, pre-professional majors not usually found at a liberal arts college, while Colgate and Amherst, ranked second and third, do not offer these majors. I do not know if PayScale considered the mix of majors at each school, but apples should be compared to apples—liberal arts schools which offer do not offer undergraduate pre-professional degrees—not to oranges. Because of its location and mix of majors, Bucknell is more likely to be considered against Lafayette or Lehigh, than either Colgate or Amherst.
I know it´s very easy to consider salary potential as a be-all, end-all when comparing schools, especially when reliable data is available. But parents and students must look beyond these numbers and so must corporate America. It´s disheartening to find out that perception is reality, and the reality has been quantified: those graduates who could afford to attend one of the top private schools on these lists are likely to earn higher entry level salaries than those who could not.
Contact Stuart Nachbar at httop://www.EducatedQuest.com, a blog on education politics, policy and technology or read about his first book, The Sex Ed Chronicles, a novel on education and politics in 1980 New Jersey, at http://www.SexEdChronicles.com.
