Compare Engineering Schools rank vs. salary - weird, any explanation?

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>According to the latest US news and world report ranking (usnews.com), and topuniversities.com ranking, the data for Best Chemical Engineering Undergraduate schools in Univ. with PhD is the following (in the following order, as best schools), including starting salary and mid career salary (source is payscale.com; salaries are average per university, not taking account the department), and full tuition price.</p>

<p>What I do not understand is the following.
University of Minnesota and of Wisconsin are cheaper than those who follow, but they have better rank among chemical engineering schools. At the same time the salaries their students get upon graduation are lower than graduates of universities with worse rank.
For instance,
University of Minnesota is usnews.com chemical engineering school #3 (world engineering ranking 145), with starting salary $46,500, and tuition $24,048
University of Wisconsin is chemical engineering school #4 (world engineering ranking 83), , with starting salary $48,800, and tuition $32,143
while Stanford is #5 (world engineering ranking 3), with starting salary $67,500, and tuition $51,267
So, rank for Stanford is worse (as well as for University of Texas, Caltech, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, Georgia Institute of Technology), tuition price is higher and starting salary is also higher. And the rank does not include tuition price.</p>

<p>How can that be? Any ideas?
Is it a way to get something for nothing?</p>

<p>School Name USNews Rank US News Cat World Univ rank (out of 600) World Technology/Engineering School rank (out of 300) starting mid career full price<br>
MIT, MA 4 National Universities 9 1 $71,100 $126,000 $50,292
University of California, Berkely, CA 21 National Universities 39 2 $57,100 $112,000 $47,297
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, MN 61 National Universities 105 145 $46,500 $84,500 $24,048
University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 39 National Universities 61 83 $48,800 $88,300 $32,143
Stanford, CA 4 National Universities 16 3 $67,500 $124,000 $51,267
University of Texas, Austin, TX 47 National Universities 76 36 $50,000 $91,300 $40,368
Caltech, CA 4 National Universities 10 5 $69,000 $115,000 $46,629
University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, IL 39 National Universities 63 25 $53,900 $99,700 $37,286
Georgia Institute of Technology, GA 35 National Universities 86 12 $58,900 $105,000 $35,220
University of Delaware, DE 68 National Universities 401-500 226 $47,100 $84,600 $33,294</p>

2

<p>In my opinion, salary doesn’t correspond to the school you graduate from. Generally, engineers across the board at a company get paid the same, except increases are given based on experience. A company won’t pay $120k for a Stanford grad yet only $80k for a University of Idaho grad if they both do the same job.</p>

<p>The salary an engineer gets paid has a lot to do with which company they work for and in what part of the country they live in. Engineers that work in low paying places (like the South) will earn less than engineers that live in high paying places (like New York City). So the University of South Carolina will naturally have a lower median income among graduating engineers than Cornell University in Ithaca, NY.</p>

3

<p>Not only that but since the programs have to be ABET accredited, going to a more expensive school doesn’t mean you’re getting a better education.</p>

4

<p>Oops. The price mentioned is not just tuition, it includes room and board and other fees.</p>

<p>Why would graduates of different universities get different salaries in avegare then?
Just because of different mix of specialties?
Probably, graduates of different colleges do a little bit different job, not the same one.
Do you mean if someone graduated in SC, she would stay in SC for life then? And that is why MN and WI graduates get less salaries than CA graduates? Does not look convincing. They do not have to stay in the same state.</p>

5

<p>Basically what Bigtree said, it really doesn’t have anything to do with the school and more the area they’re in. When you work in an area with a higher cost of living you generally make more money. This is true with most jobs not just engineering.</p>

6

<p>you got pretty confused over there
1/ US News does not use starting salary as a criterion for ranking. So it does not make any sense to answer ur question.
2/ The difference between #3 and #4 is not that big.
3/ As someone has said above, your salary mainly depends on you, not the school.</p>

<p>Starting salary also depends on the industries the students go into after graduation. For example, Colorado School of Mines’s engineering program is ranked way below UWisconsin and UMinesota, but their starting salary is higher than both schools because most of Mines graduates go into the oil industry.</p>

7

<p>That definitely makes some sense, but how would you explain differences in salaries between graduates of different school? Do you really beleive they work in the same area where they graduated, thoughout the whole life?
Also, if the salaries were the same, the quality of education would not mean anything. I beleive a graduate of a better school would get a better job, in terms of pay, while the duties would be different.</p>

8

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<p>The data for salaries was from payscale.com, not from usnews.com. I just brought everyhing into one table. Of course, that is exactly the reason while my question makes sense. Better education from my point of view should bring more income in average. Otherwise it would not make any sense to have a better education.</p>

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<p>That is not the point.
The point is both #3 and #4 are better than #5, #6, #7, according to rank. But the price is lower for them, than for #5, #6, #7 et,.c. and the salaries are lower for #3and #4 than for #5, #6, #7. It means usnews rank makes no sense - it is not corelaed to salary and to price. </p>

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<p>Well, that would mean it does not make sense whether to study at community college or in Stanford.</p>

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<p>yes, that would be some kind of explanation. But I see another explanation - lower tuition price of the university causes lower salary regardless of the usnews rank of a university. So, it is not clear what the rank really means in terms of your career goals.</p>

9

<p>Also, salary is something that varies wildly with region, so a school in New England is more likely to send grads to New England companies where cost of living is higher and salaries are higher. That would tend to favor schools that are located on one of the coasts over the Midwest. That is how Delaware looks comparable to Minnesota and why somewhere like Stanford is ridiculously high.</p>

<p>Also, you said yourself that “salaries are average per university, not taking account the department” so if that means that it is presumably including all the underwater basket weaving majors in that average, so a school like Stanford, where every program is superb in every department, would have an inherent advantage over a big state school like Minnesota where there are some really top notch programs but some are mediocre.</p>

10

<p>Ravesky,</p>

<p>There is a population of students who stay for life in the vicinity of school. They get to know the area, they like it, they find work, they don’t leave. It might only be 15% or 20% but that is enough to make a statistical difference.</p>

11

<p>OK. I would reword my question in different terms. I would ask if there is any kind of problem with those state schools in spite of their high rank in the list of engineering schools (Unversities of MN, WI and DE) that in fact makes the salaries lower, just because the tuition is lower for those schools.</p>

12

<p>No, I’m sure there is no “problem” with them. As long as you have an ABET accredited degree, you are a full blooded engineer and can qualify to work for basically any employer (Lockheed, Boeing, Navsea, etc, etc) so it’s a personal choice on where you want to work.</p>

<p>I’m making big bucks this year. That’s not because I graduated from Stanford (I didn’t) but it’s because I’m willing to work overtime. Lots and lots of overtime. My willingness to work overtime has nothing to do with what school I went to - it has to do with my desire to make money.</p>

13

<p>I would also ask another question - about Canadian engineering schools, like University of Toronto or University of Waterloo, or McGill. They are probably not ABET accredited, since ABET is a US organization. Would it make the salaries of those graduates lower in case they work in the US, compared to graduates of US universities?</p>

14

<p>Even if there is a difference:</p>

<p>1) It won’t be much and…</p>

<p>2) That is year #1. After 5+ years of experience, IT WILL NOT MATTER WHICH SCHOOL YOU GRADUATED FROM!!! If an employer needs someone to design/develop databases, they will choose the candidate with the best experience. They will NOT choose a Stanford grad with less experience over the Iowa State grad with more experience.</p>

15

<p>But boy, Stanford sure would like prospective students to think that they’d get preferential hiring for life becuase of the Stanford name!</p>

16

<p>One more thing…</p>

<p>I do see the benefits of a Stanford, Princeton and other Ivys/Quasi-Ivys when is comes to professions when there is a lot of competition (Law, Medicine, Business, etc) but for most areas of engineering, there are more jobs available than the colleges can produce grads.</p>

<p>Even if all of the Top-10 school grads were hired, that would leave a WHOLE lot of hungry and broke recruiters and head-hunters with plenty of defense contracts going down the drain.</p>

<p>So don’t stress it…you are in engineering. Enjoy it.</p>

17

<p>Canadian engineering schools are CEAB accredited, which has reciprocal recognition with ABET, so there’s no difference.</p>

18

<p>I wanted some sincere advice of you people because i am in this confusion for more than a month now…</p>

<p>Which engineering field is better chemical or mechanical depending on the scope,demand and salary of these fields???</p>

19

<p>Neither is better, thread hijacker! Do what you are interested in!</p>

20

<p>@raevsky:
My point is that the US News uses peer ranking to assess the programs, and peer ranking obviously does not take into account salary of graduates. Furthermore, what US News values may not be what employers value. Your logic was flawed at the beginning because you assumed that US News ranking correctly reflected the academic strength of those engineering programs.
Your question sounded like “Why do ducks fly lower than geese although the American Ducky Magazine ranks ducks number one for best tasted meat?”</p>