<p>In a recently done pay scale survey these are the average salaries found. The idea that almost every ivy league school gets a roughly 60k starting salary is very impressive. That is a third more than liberal arts college graduates. </p>
<p>Best Ivy League Schools By Salary Potential - Full List
Ivy League Schools Starting Median Salary Mid-Career Median Salary
Dartmouth College $58,000 $134,000
Princeton University $66,500 $131,000
Yale University $59,100 $126,000
Harvard University $63,400 $124,000
University of Pennsylvania $60,900 $120,000
Cornell University $60,300 $110,000
Brown University $56,200 $109,000
Columbia University $59,400 $107,000</p>
<p>Surely, you can recognize that these schools produce a larger proportion of students that
a) remain in the higher wage areas of the country (Coasts)
b) are in the financial or law fields</p>
<p>Bescraze, you're not the first and probably won't be the last person to bring up that slightly misleading PayScale survey.</p>
<p>You can't really assume that going to a "better" college pays off based on the survey because numerous factors need to be controlled, like Cost of Living differences between regions (Northeast is more expensive than the Midwest), Career Interests of the students (Engineers almost always make more than teachers), Parental Income (More money usually means more and better connections) and so forth. Once these have been controlled, then maybe you could say that going to School A would be slightly more beneficial (higher pay) than going to School B.</p>
<p>Surveys like this are interesting but fundamentally answer the wrong question. crs1909 is right about some of the things that need to be controlled to make such a study useful. But what REALLY need to be controlled are all factors relating to the characteristics of individual students. In effect, you really want to know the impact of college attended on a GIVEN INDIVIDUAL. Since of course a real individual can't simultaneously attend two different schools, you need to at least make comparisons between groups of individuals who are as similar to each other as possible, not between entire student bodies. Studies like that are much harder to do so you rarely see them. Bottom line- don't let the statistics mislead you.</p>
<p>"The idea that almost every ivy league school gets a roughly 60k starting salary is very impressive."</p>
<p>It's also wrong. Please get data from any school that shows that. Payscale is a site that does not gather data in any scientific manner nor is it verified. I went on it and claimed a salary double the real one with no problem.</p>
<p>This shows correlation, not causation, I think.</p>
<p>If you were motivated enough, had the intelligence (or in many cases the money and resources for tutoring) to get high test scores, and were impressive enough on paper to get into an Ivy League school (whether it was truly earned or you had a distinct advantage due to a privileged life, private school, etc), then chances are you are motivated and high-achieving enough to get a good job, or at least you have enough connections. I'm willing to bet most of those people, if they'd gone to a lower-tiered school, could have gotten the same positions on personal merit or connections, whatever the case may be.</p>
<p>School reputations can certainly boost your chances at getting a good job, but going to a lower-ranked school does not hurt you if you can show you have merits in the hiring process, have a good GPA, experience, etc.</p>
<p>Bescraze, last I looked Colleges don't go get jobs, people do. The same students who graduated from these Ivies would have been offered roughly the same salaries had they chosen (for a variety of reasons) to turn down their Ivy acceptance and instead attend Penn St, or William and Mary, or Wesleyan, or Michigan or Vanderbilt.</p>
<p>Sometimes you act like a heart aflutter newly teenage girl that just came back from an N Sync concert. When will your crush/enfatuation/unrealistic expectations about the Ivy League end?</p>
<p>P.S. The Ivy league will not rescue you, set you up for life, or sweep you off your feet. Nor is it a god deserving of worship.</p>
<p>Wharton's average is 60k. I doubt Upenn as a whole surpasses that.</p>
<p>Payscale is a not a very credible source though I do agree that going to a better college pays (but a good college means colleges beyond Ivy Leagues).</p>