<p>[url=<a href="http://www.payscale.com/best-colleges/top-colleges.asp%5DPayScale%5B/url">http://www.payscale.com/best-colleges/top-colleges.asp]PayScale[/url</a>] has recently put out its college salary report, which breaks down colleges based on how their graduates are doing in the workplace, strictly in terms of income. So, if you were ever interested in how liberal arts colleges compare to universities or Ivies when it comes to how much graduates earn, or if you ever wondered which liberal arts college puts out the top earners among its peers (it's Bucknell, of all places... Swarthmore ranks 9th among liberal arts colleges), then look no further.</p>
<p>I should point out that I don't think this study is 100% credible or all that useful, but it is interesting to look over, nonetheless.</p>
<p>Thanks for pointing this out, although you are right, who knows about credibility.</p>
<p>I don't really think that the difference between 105,000 vs 109,000 is much of a difference, but the fact that the top LACs, including Swarthmore, are over 100,000 is good news. The Ivys are interesting because although the top 5 are higher than the LACs, it goes to about the same level as the top LACs after that.</p>
<p>Considering all of the Swat grads who go into public interest fields, I am amazed that it is that high. Must be balanced out by some very high earners (like the alum who began Home Decorators catalogue and contributes a lot to Swarthmore.)</p>
<p>it doesn't include holders of graduate degrees and Payscale is a passsive drive-by site for people contemplating changing jobs. so, we're not entirely sure how long it took for them to record 1.3 million hits.</p>
<p>Bucknell and Lafayette are high up the list because they produce lots of engineers compared to Swarthmore.
Colgate is very preprofessional and produces many bankers.</p>
<p>i think that has a lot to do with the atmosphere at certain schools. bucknell produces more professionals (such as engineers and people going for mbas) while a lot of swatties go to work for non-profits, etc. I truly believe, even though I'm only a sophomore, having a swarthmore degree can get you a job that pays as well as any other</p>
<p>
[quote]
Considering all of the Swat grads who go into public interest fields, I am amazed that it is that high. Must be balanced out by some very high earners (like the alum who began Home Decorators catalogue and contributes a lot to Swarthmore.)
[/quote]
</p>
<p>It uses the median, not the mean, so a few big earners won't change the results to a major degree.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Bucknell and Lafayette are high up the list because they produce lots of engineers compared to Swarthmore.
Colgate is very preprofessional and produces many bankers.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>The highest paying majors listed at PayScale are engineering, physics, math, and economics. At Swarthmore, about 30% of graduates are in the natural sciences and engineering and 16% are economics. So, about 46% of Swarthmore graduates graduate with degrees in the top paying majors. From what I can tell about Bucknell, about 11% of graduates are economics majors, 20% are engineering majors. I don't know what proportion of the rest are natural science majors. In both cases, many natural science majors go onto grad school or medical school. About 70% of Bucknell graduates go immediately into employment, while Swarthmore has a rate closer to 60%; a higher proportion of Swarthmore graduates go into grad school right away.</p>
<p>I agree that the differences within the top 10 liberal arts institutions are minor, and possibly not even statistically significant, but the difference between the Ivies and the top liberal arts college is comparatively large. Dartmouth and Yale really seem to crank out big earners. This isn't a huge surprise, though, as Ivies have a level of status that attracts the same sort of people who are more likely to be interested in earning more money.</p>