I was checking the average salaries for certain degrees at certain universities, and I was surprised that the average salary for a BFA in one of my top schools was lower than that of one of a lower-ranked school.
I know the websites are clearly not going to be completely accurate, but is PayScale at all an indicator as to what school graduates end up making?
U.S. News includes PayScale figures in its college entries. This represents mainstream acceptance, which may or may not connote accuracy.
You have to be careful when looking at PayScale numbers which mix together different majors. Different mixes of majors at different schools can result in apparent differences between schools when the actual difference is based on different majors.
My understanding is that Payscale relies primarily on self-reporting and is dependent on a pool of actual people who are seeking work or to switch jobs, therefore, I have to think that sample size has to be a problem from time to time. FWIW, Forbes uses a combination of Payscale and data from the federal government’s collegenavigator website which covers a much larger pool consisting of people who took out student loans during college and cross-referenced with their tax returns filed six years after graduation.