Colleges That Bring the Highest Paycheck 2011

College Search & Selection
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<p>Colleges That Bring the Highest Paycheck 2011</p>

<p>by Paul Toscano
Monday, July 25, 2011</p>

<p>Location, prestige, academic reputation and tuition are major factors for students in the college selection process, but post-graduate salary is something rarely taken into consideration. </p>

<p>Although salaries depend heavily on a graduate's field of work, companies are willing to pay a premium for students hailing from the nation's top universities. But which undergraduate institutions offer the most valuable educations? </p>

<p>Recently, PayScale.com released a report on the highest salary potential among the nation's top colleges, and from this data, colleges and universities can be ranked by the mid-career median salaries of its graduates. For schools with the same mid-career median salaries, starting median salary determines their relative rank. </p>

<p>So, which schools have highest paid graduates?</p>

<ol>
<li>Duke University</li>
</ol>

<p>Mid-career median salary: $111,000
Starting median salary: $59,600</p>

<p>Location: Durham, N.C.
2010-2011 tuition: $40,472
College rank: 9 (National)
Acceptance rate: 18.9%
Total undergrad enrollment: 6,578</p>

<ol>
<li>Polytechnic Institute of New York University</li>
</ol>

<p>Mid-career median salary: $113,000
Starting median salary: $61,000</p>

<p>Location: Brooklyn, N.Y.
2010-2011 tuition: $36,284
College rank: 153 (National)
Acceptance rate: 55%
Total undergrad enrollment: 1,732</p>

<p>Dartmouth College</p>

<ol>
<li>Dartmouth College </li>
</ol>

<p>Mid-career median salary: $114,000
Starting median salary: $51,600</p>

<p>Location: Hanover, N.H.
2010-2011 tuition: $40,437
College rank: 9 (National)
Acceptance rate: 12.6%
Total undergrad enrollment: 4,196</p>

<p>Massachusetts Institute of Technology</p>

<ol>
<li>Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)</li>
</ol>

<p>Mid-career median salary: $115,000
Starting median salary: $69,700</p>

<p>Location: Cambridge, Mass.
2010-2011 tuition: $39,212
College rank: 7 (National)
Acceptance rate: 10.7%
Total undergrad enrollment: 4,232</p>

<p>Steve Dunwell - Getty Images</p>

<ol>
<li>Harvard University</li>
</ol>

<p>Mid-career median salary: $116,000
Starting median salary: $54,100</p>

<p>Location: Cambridge, Mass.
2010-2011 tuition: $38,416
College rank: 1 (National)
Acceptance rate: 7.5%
Total undergrad enrollment: 6,655</p>

<p>Harvey Mudd College</p>

<ol>
<li>Harvey Mudd College</li>
</ol>

<p>Mid-career median salary: $121,000
Starting median salary: $64,400</p>

<p>Location: Claremont, Calif.
2010-2011 tuition: $40,390
College rank: 18 (Liberal Arts)
Acceptance rate: 34.1%
Total undergrad enrollment: 757</p>

<p>CalTech</p>

<ol>
<li>California Institute of Technology (CalTech)</li>
</ol>

<p>Mid-career median salary: $123,000
Starting median salary: $69,600</p>

<p>Location: Pasadena, Calif.
2010-2011 tuition: $36,282
College rank: 7 (National)
Acceptance rate: 15.3%
Total undergrad enrollment: 951</p>

<p>Princeton University</p>

<ol>
<li>Princeton University</li>
</ol>

<p>Mid-career median salary: $130,000
Starting median salary: $56,900</p>

<p>Location: Princeton, N.J.
2010-2011 tuition: $36,640
College rank: 2 (National)
Acceptance rate: 10.1%
Total undergrad enrollment: 5,113</p>

<p>For more colleges that bring the highest paychecks, visit CNBC.com. </p>

<p>Source: colleges-that-bring-highest-paycheck-cnbc:</a> Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance</p>

2

<p>Isn’t Payscale data all self-reported, and therefore useless?</p>

3

<p>I’d like to see Cost of Living brought into play. Most of these schools are in a high COL region.</p>

4

<p>Holy Cross came in at number 12 and with the exception of rival Colgate was the highest ranked LAC-ahead of Amherst. HC has a great alumni network that helps in job placement.</p>

5

<p>Holy Cross is ahead of BC as well in terms of pay.</p>

6

<p>i saw this too. i think a better breakdown would be one that monitored a single major over many schools eg. “Colleges that bring the highest paychecks for economics majors”, etc. Because of course caltech and mit, who send more kids into high-paying engineering jobs than most others, are going to have higher averages than (for example) a liberal arts college. i feel like mostly what this list tells me is “hey you wanna make a lot of money? take a science major at a school that has good science majors!”</p>

7

<p>

</p>

<p>Well, as long as the science major is not biology or chemistry.</p>

8

<p>Report by major based on Census data. Good stuff. Major plays HUGE factor in income.</p>

<p>[Center</a> on Education and the Workforce -](<a href=“http://cew.georgetown.edu/whatsitworth/]Center”>What’s It Worth?: The Economic Value of College Majors - CEW Georgetown)</p>

9

<p>Glad to see Princeton ranked #1 in this catagory while its tuition is not among the top 100. Still very expensive for a full pay family.</p>

10

<p>What is a holy cross? Is that even accredited?</p>

11

<p>^are you serious? holycross.edu</p>

12

<p>Informative went to BC and likes to bash Holy Cross and Tufts.</p>

13

<p>Princeton, Duke, Dartmouth all have great alumni networks, produce a high percentage of business and medical alumni, and good school spirit. Holy Cross and Colgate have the same attributes and thus lead among selective LAC’s.</p>

14

<p>Nothing Informative says is in fact, informative or factual. She is just jealous that Holy Cross > BC, and she was obviously rejected by Holy Cross</p>

15

<p>I disagree with the causal implication that the college “brings” the paycheck. Does anyone really believe that choosing to go to Yale(not ranked) over Duke(#8) will in any way lower their future earning potential?</p>

16

<p>This self reporting data reminds me of the semester I went to high schools doing research about the prevalence of drug addiction.</p>

<p>Who here is addicted to drugs? 1 hand would raise usually the class clown.</p>

<p>Who knows someone who is addicted to drugs? A couple of hands would raise and usually there was finger pointing and laughing.</p>

<p>If you have ever been affected by drugs or alcohol will you please come with me to the auditorium for a film? The whole class would get up and walk out.</p>

<p>Self reporting data is useless in my opinion, especially when a thing as emotion filled as money comes to play.</p>

17

<p>Good point, BowTie. But the interesting one in this group is SUNY Maritime. Who knew?</p>

18

<p>

</p>

<p>Exactly - it’s basic statistics that any survey in which respondents self-report data on a voluntary basis will have useless results. The people who report are likely those with a higher pay; those with lower pay are less likely to be stating such on the internet, so it’s likely that the average pay is actually less. It’s possible that it’s more or that it’s not very different, but we won’t know unless and until a legitimate survey is done.</p>

19

<p>It’s sad that people are going to look at that survey and then make incorrect conclusions about certain schools.</p>

20

<p>Thanks for the great link barrons.</p>