Looking at pay scale rankings of college grad salaries mid career. Grinnell ranks 258. That’s extremely low. Other top LACs are in the top 50 and some like Colgate are as high as 13. Why are Grinnell grads making so little? It can’t be because they ALL go to the Peace Corp or become professors.
From Payscale.
Mid career pay rankings
MIT 1
Colgate 13
Lafayette 43
Bucknell 45
Bates 46
Bowdoin 49
Amherst 54
Middlebury 85
Carleton 100
Denison 124
Grinnell 258
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These numbers don’t mean much unless you control for industry AND location, and of course rankings can exaggerate differences in circumstances where the ranked entities are more similar than different (at least after proper controls).
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According to the website, Grinnell has one of the highest percentages of STEM degrees among LACs ranked most highly by USNews, especially interesting in view of the fact that Grinnell is also one the most generous merit-aid colleges in the country:
Perhaps, it depends on the college?
MIT is very STEM-centric.
High tech has done very well over the past 40 years. Biotech is doing very well right now in the Boston / Cambridge area.
Massachusetts is a relatively expensive place to live, with relatively high salaries.
MIT brings in a large number of very smart students who work hard. It is quite well known for being academically demanding.
I do wonder to what extent these factors account for relatively high mid career salaries for MIT graduates.
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As NiceUnparticularMan mentioned, you really do have to control for industry. For example, your list included Bucknell, a college that has a business school and an engineering school. Both of those schools are known to generate high salaries and both are missing from Grinnell.
In addition, though, you also have to control for the past focus of the students that attended that school, as those past students are the ones whose mid-career income is being reported. To show you how much that can change over time, note that in 2014 the top career field chosen by that year’s Grinnell graduates who replied to the school’s post-graduation placement survey was “education/teaching K–12” at 13.8% of the respondents (https://www.grinnell.edu/sites/default/files/docs/2019-07/Class_of_2014_Report.pdf). For the class of 2022 that top spot had been taken by “Computing & technology” at 18.4% (https://www.grinnell.edu/sites/default/files/docs/2023-06/2022_FDS_report_draft_accessible.pdf).
If you are trying to guide someone in their quest for a college that would best fit them, the mid-career survey will likely not be of any help. There are just too many variables that impact the results and few of them will be relevant to your child.
Regardless of what your child wants to study, or even if they are undecided, I would suggest first sorting colleges that are best for that area of study, and then finding which best fit your child’s maturity, personality, future career and income goals. At that more granular level, not at the whole college/university level, the income and cost data become more relevant since they are closer in time, and career focus, to your child’s situation.
Good luck with your search!
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This is another decent source of information on salary outcomes: Best U.S. Colleges for High Salaries - WSJ.com.
College Navigator - Grinnell College indicates the biological sciences was the biggest group of recent STEM graduates (80), followed by computer science (41), math (30), and physical sciences (28).
However, the mix of majors at Grinnell now may be different compared to that of those Grinnell alumni reporting mid-career pay levels to Payscale surveys.
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As others have noted, location isn’t really taken into account in these salary comparisons. A disproportionate percentage of graduates end up in the region their college is located. The Midwest has a lower cost of living than the Northeast or West, so schools in those more expensive regions have a bit of an edge on salary comparisons. For salaries, I recommend comparing schools within a region. There are other factors as well; schools that offer engineering also have an edge, for example.
Beyond all that, I think you might have been looking at older data, and perhaps even data restricted to those who don’t continue to graduate school. PayScale refreshed its data a couple months ago. It also provides different ranks depending on whether looking at just those that stop with bachelor’s degrees or all alumni; I personally find the “All Alumni” value more interesting since getting into a good grad program is a legitimate reason for selecting a particular college in the first place (especially for LACs). Here is what I see for the schools you mentioned using their current data, for both “Bachelor’s Only” and “All Alumni” options.
MIT: Bachelor’s Only- 1; All Alumni- 1
Colgate: 7, 22
Lafayette: 33, 41
Bucknell: 39, 20
Bates: 51, 59
Bowdoin: 45, 42
Amherst: 102, 50
Middlebury: 106, 62
Carleton: 92, 67
Denison: 98, 117
Grinnell: 256, 133
While Grinnell is still lowest from this group, the “All Alumni” figure is 123 spots higher than their “Bachelor’s Only” figure. Also, it should be noted that only the last three are from the Midwest. The others are all from the Northeast, so have a raw earnings advantage, but at the price of a higher cost of living.
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It is not surprising that MIT is at the top of pay levels for entire schools, given (a) its mix of majors (heavy with computer science, engineering, and math), and (b) its prestige level and proximity to Wall Street.
Looking at specific majors for recent Grinnell graduates who received federal financial aid at College Scorecard | College Scorecard , we see the following recent graduate pay levels majors at Grinnell with pay levels, and comparison to MIT, Colgate, and Carleton where available:
| Major | Grinnell median | MIT median | Colgate median | Carleton median |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Computer science | $106,113 | $199,774 | NA | $116,048 |
| Political science and government | $51,522 | NA | $85,816 | NA |
| Economics | $67,691 | NA | $103,456 | $83,775 |
| Biology | $48,846 | $72,992 | $36,509 | $40,859 |
| Biochemistry, biophysics, and molecular biology | $56,764 | No such major | No such major | No such major |
| Sociology | $50,389 | No such major | NA | NA |
| Anthropology | $42,740 | NA | NA | No such major |
| Ethnic studies | $50,359 | NA | NA | NA |
| English | $49,405 | NA | $49,657 | NA |
| History | $50,667 | NA | $53,541 | NA |
Bear in mind that College Scorecard and Payscale are attempting to describe different things.
College Scorecard’s overall college salary info is 10 years from starting at that college, so generally six years from graduating, and (as you pointed out) only for those who received federal funds. Their salary info by major appears to be captured even sooner, namely 4 years from graduating.
The mid-career salary info reported by PayScale is based on whoever reports, so not restricted to federal funds recipients, and is based on earnings after “10+” years of experience in a field.