<p>If one is looking for after-graduation employment data from the universities, make sure the response rate or sample size is identified in the data provided.</p>
<p>For instance, there are some universities that claim 80-90% employment of their grads, but the sample size is only 30% of the graduating class. In such case, only 24-27% employment rates can be said to be ‘verified’. This sort of distortion is quite common in Computer Engineering, which suffers from very high unemployment and underemployment (typical Computer Engineering types of jobs receive hundreds, sometimes thousands of resumes per position) due to outsourcing/offshoring. </p>
<p>Another scam that often presents itself in employment statistics of grads is that of the average salary. An average salary of $70k/year for grads is impressive if those grads are working in Austin, Atlanta, etc., but is actually quite lacklustre if those grads are employed in San Francisco, NYC, etc. Work location is important when evaluating claims of high salaries paid to graduates.</p>