<p>Obviously there's a lot more that should go into picking a college than the amount of money one will make afterward, but I think it's an interesting thing to think about. </p>
<p>This ranking is most shocking for Lehigh's 12th ranking, which I'm still trying to figure out, but overall I think this ranking gives an interesting and accurate perspective on schools' prestige and name recognition in the real world. No surprise HYPSM and Cal Tech are on top, though I wouldn't have predicted Harvey Mudd would be so high. </p>
<p>I was pleasantly surprised to see ND in the same league as Penn, Amherst, and Duke btw :)</p>
<p>Not surprised to see big engineering schools high. Also, it’s a good measure of the impact of alumni networks.</p>
<p>I wonder how grad school factors into this, though. Some schools (smaller LACs) may be ranked high thanks to their ability to get their students into good grad schools.</p>
<p>Haha Billy you have a creative way of writing your location.</p>
<p>That’s an interesting point, though. Depending on how the data is acquired schools that have a high proportion of students looking for higher education might be hurt (including to LACs actually), where as engineering schools like MIT whose grads are going directly to the work force do well. I agree with you though that the list probably has a lot to do with the strength of the schools’ alumni networks as well.</p>
<p>Lumping in the tech schools with the general universities is comparing apples and oranges. MIT, Caltech, Harvey Mudd, et al don’t turn out social workers, poets, public school teachers, etc. whose lower salaries would be averaged in with the scientists and engineers that they graduate. The colleges and universities with broader curricula that are on the list
do.</p>
Thanks; few people seem to get it, even after translating.</p>
<p>
Good point; sort of what I meant by not being surprised that engineering schools are on top. The rankings aren’t very pertinent for an individual with a specific major, but they are interesting for overall trends.</p>
<p>I really hope a lot of people aren’t picking schools based on future salary, though I’m sure a lot do.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I’m surprised to see some great schools ranked so low:
63. Washington University in SL
72. Swarthmore College
84. Northwestern University
101. NYU
127. Emory</p>
<p>I agree with gadad I don’t think that this list should be interpreted as saying that the tech school degrees are necessarily worth more than degrees from top national universities and LACs, after all a high salary isn’t necessarily the biggest goal of many of the best and brightest. Maybe its actually an honor for a top school to be low on the salary scale lol.</p>
<p>I’m impressed that Amherst in particular managed to get such a high ranking considering that this system would seem to be biased against it. </p>
<p>Even with the correct list BillyMc posted Wash U, Emory, and Northwestern don’t fare to well. Why would they be lower on this list than some of their peers (e.g. Duke)?</p>
<p>^ This is a vital question. I consider this list hogwash.<br>
So schools that turn out a great number of PhDs like Reed do poorly (or for some reason aren’t even listed). Also the service academies would have an infinite ROI. They aren’t listed.</p>
Opportunity cost. Not that they could calculate that exactly enough for a precise ranking.</p>
<p>
In addition to this list, it would be interesting to see a list that does include those who go on to graduate school.</p>
<p>
I’m a little disappointed that Notre Dame is so high, honestly. I’d like to think that Catholics would tend to go into less lucrative field. Many may be giving much of their salary to charity, at least.</p>
<p>I think what this list represents is a set of good (& mostly very selective) schools that tend to attract relatively many students who gravitate to lucrative fields (such as engineering and finance). Consider two typical English majors bound for similar law schools, one at Colgate (#18) and another at Middlebury (#100). Will Colgate turn out to provide a signifcantly higher ROI? I doubt it.</p>
<p>Absolutely not but Colgate is a much stronger feeder to Wall Street and business jobs than Middlebury so that’s where the difference lies. This list is basically a litmus test of how strong a school’s brand name is in the engineering or finance world.</p>
<p>In my book taking a full ride is almost never a bad decision tigerdad, but it is true there could be sizable opportunity costs as well.</p>
<p>The more I think about it tk21769’s point the more I think he’s right. What that example shows is also a reminder that the individual case is more important than the general ranking. A 4.0 at Middlebury or Williams is going to have a much higher ROI than a 3.1 at ND or Colgate, regardless of what this list says. However this point is also true for any ranking system; a brilliant student at an average school (not saying any of the schools we have talked about can be called average btw) is going to do better than a lackluster student at a higher-ranked school.</p>
<p>I believe there was a study stating that, after accounting for personal ability, where you go to college doesn’t matter much for future success. By success they meant money. I think of success differently, but my kind of success doesn’t depend on school.</p>
<p>“Even with the correct list BillyMc posted Wash U, Emory, and Northwestern don’t fare to well. Why would they be lower on this list than some of their peers (e.g. Duke”</p>
<p>Theater majors at Northwestern might account for some of it. That’s a field you do for love, not money.</p>
<p>Holy Cross came in at #21 which is another Patriot school (Colgate) that performs very well in job placement on Wall Street ans corporate world. Notre Dame and Holy Cross have 2 of the better alumni networks with alumni giving rates > 50%. (HC has 55% alumni giving rate. Also Duke and Dartmouth have been strong feeder schools to Wall Street for years with many partners and CEO’s with Blue Devil ties.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, I’m not convinced. There are plenty of other high ranking schools that offer drama/music yet their ROI rank is not as low as NU’s such as CMU, Brown, Yale, UCLA. NU has a superb engineering school, great graduate programs, and a huge alumni base. hmm.</p>