<p>Hi guys, I'm trying to decide between Penn and Rice and I figured that looking at post-graduation career surveys was a good way to gauge the success of graduates from the College of Arts and Sciences at Penn and the School of Natural Sciences and the School of Social Sciences at Rice. </p>
<p>I haven't decided between majoring in Biochemistry, Psychology, or Cognitive Science, but looking at the average Rice grad's salary from 2007 in each of these career paths the average Rice grad substantially more than the average Rice grad in every field. </p>
<p>Biochemistry: 52,000 for a Rice grad vs. 25,000 for a penn biochem grad and 32,000 for a Penn biology grad </p>
<p>Psychology: 51,875 for a Rice grad vs. 42,000 for a Penn grad</p>
<p>Cognitive Science: 66,750 for a Rice grad vs. 32,000 for a Penn grad</p>
<p>Anyone care to elucidate here? I'm really curious why Penn grads make substantially less than their Rice peers.</p>
<p>Rice's most recent data is from 2007 so I used the 2007 data from Penn.</p>
<p>(pages 50 and 51 in the Rice survey pages 8-39 in the Penn survey)</p>
<p>While neither response rate is very good, Penn’s response rate was stronger. Typically, when responding is optional, students who were happier with their outcome are going to be more likely to respond to the survey. This alone could account for the entire difference.</p>
<p>I don’t really know enough about the specifics of the programs at each school to suggest possible reasons aside from response bias for psychology and cognitive science, but the better results for biochemistry majors at Rice are probably in part due to Rice’s location in Houston and the CCD’s strong connections with oil and energy companies. Rice grads, to my knowledge, do very well in getting jobs in the Houston area, especially Rice engineering and science majors. Between the strength of Rice’s engineering and natural science programs and the prime location for those fields, I’d say that’s likely to account for some of Rice’s edge.</p>
<p>Psychology and cognitive science majors at Rice are probably also helped by the wealth of opportunities provided throughout the undergrad experience with the help of the CCD and the School of Social Sciences to gain useful experience through internships, jobs, and research and by the location of Rice next to the Texas Medical Center.</p>
<p>I don’t really know enough about Penn to know how Rice’s advantages stack up, but those are just a few things off the top of my head that can probably make a big difference.</p>
<p>Does anyone else find it strange that the highest salary offered to Rice undergrads with an Architecture degree was $30,000 (Rice survey page 50). I thought that was a well-paying field.</p>
<p>I’m just going to comment on psychology since that was my major, but I was shocked when I saw your Rice number. Jobs in the psych field with just a BA simply do not pay that much. So, I looked at the employers listed and it seems that that salary number is skewed by the people who double majored in psych/managerial studies and went on to banking type jobs. In psych most people who want to work in the field go on to grad school immediately, or take a low paying research assistant position for a few years first, so perhaps Penn had more people go this latter route which lowered their numbers, while the banking jobs increased Rice’s. </p>
<p>Just as an aside, my final decision came down to Penn and Rice also, and I ultimately picked Rice due to some non-academic reasons. I love Penn and I love Rice so there probably isn’t a wrong choice here. Good luck!</p>