That’s not how it works. These are justifications to make such decisions palatable. Lifestyle takes precedence over life of purpose once you start walking on that path.
My sophomore D (CS major) was offered a summer internship in NYC. She will be making $20000 over the course of 10 weeks, so equivalent to about $100000 salary. I assume she will make more at her junior year internship, and even more where she graduates. So yes six figure salaries do happen.
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Well, this is what you do for a living so I’ll defer to you on what the candidates are thinking. Without question, money always matters. But I’ll say that I’ve yet to meet the lawyer who would have turned down a SCOTUS clerkship because the firms weren’t paying enough on the signing bonus to make up for the year or two of government pay. Alas, I was one of those people: clerkship (not SCOTUS, but sought-after appellate clerkship nonetheless), poor, married, first kid, etc. I had no expectation of being made whole for taking the year as a government employee. As it turned out, my firm added to the bonus for those who were going into litigation. For those like me, M&A and securities, bubkis. It never entered my mind to not do the clerkship. Then again, my loans were minimal and I had the expectations of a high earner, so I didn’t care.
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SEC? As in Securities and Exchange Commission? I dare say, I don’t think so. As much or more as any federal agency, that place is full of young people setting themselves up for a nice transtion to the private sector.
It depends on the kind of work (i.e. the level of sophistication), just like any other firms. A few firms, however, almost exclusively hire people with advanced degrees.
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The big firms hire about two thirds of their annual take from undergrads. The exclusive PhD hirers are few and small. There is a small difference in pay in some cases between what an undergrad gets paid and what a PhD gets paid. Not enough to make up for 4-5 years of time.
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Generally speaking, getting a PhD isn’t financially rewarding. However, there’re some positions, including some in the world of hedge funds, which are exclusive to those with advanced degrees.
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Depends on the person.
I have been a career nomad, giving up cushy high paying jobs when I stopped feeling challenged, to go off and do something completely different, usually at much lower pay to start. It’s very doable as long as you keep costs in check (and your spouse is supportive).
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In finance, on the investment side, the exclusive PhD places that matter are very few in number — there is a place on Long Island, one on the west coast etc.
A well functioning financial sector is essential to a well functioning economy.
However, the essentiality also increases the financial sector’s power over the economy, in allowing it to increase its share of the economy (from 2.8% in 1950 to 21% in 2019), and take risks for privatized gains which, if they generate big losses, will have losses be socialized.
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There are a lot more quant based hedge funds now, their operations can be smaller and some have amazing returns. They employ PhDs, but not exclusively.
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The first post of this thread asked, “How common is it to get six figure offer right out of undergrad?” As usual in discussions of salary, the thread spun off in a variety of directions, including discussion of highest possible salaries. I’ve heard of a U Georgia kid who was offered $37.4 million (over 4 years) directly out of undergrad, but that isn’t particularly relevant to how common a $100k salary is.
In CS, a $100k starting salary is fairly common, particularly for those working in high cost of living areas, including NYC. There are many stories like your daughter’s. Many colleges post-grad surveys show average salaries in the 6-figure range for CS. However, such surveys also consistently show almost all non-CS majors have averages well below this threshold.
Cornell’s stats are particularly detailed and have a high 74% response rate. Some specific numbers are below showing the mean and 1 standard deviation range in parenthesis. One can use the SD range to roughly estimate how common $100k for other majors besides CS. Mathematics/Stats was the only non-CS related bachelor’s degree majors I saw for which $100k is within 1 SD of mean. $100k was much more common for students with grad degrees.
2021 Cornell Salary Stats with Bachelors Degree
Computer Science – $110k (+/- $22k) – By far the most common locations are NY, CA, and WA. All other states have a small fraction of the total from these 3.
Statistics – $85k (+/- $16k)
Mathematics – $84k (+/- $21k)
Mechanical Engineering – $79k (+/- $19k)
Chemical Engineering – $75k (+/- $9k)
Economics – $74k (+/- $17k)
Physics – $67k (+/- $25k
Civil Engineering – $65k (+/- $11k)
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I am surprised that nobody mentioned the NFL or NBA. Although it may sound ridiculous, there are about 250 and 120 rookies that make the rosters each season. That is probably bigger than some of the other things discussed on this thread.
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Good point. Never thought of those. What do the rookies get paid? I am also curious about the minor leagues.
Who is the employer? Curious …
The Jacksonville Jaguars.
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There is likely another population of highly compensated students. Ones that go to work at a family business.
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Rookies make $705K this year. Practice squad players make “only” a little over $200K
From what I understand, the minor league players get paid next to nothing. Sometimes even lower than minimum wage if you count all the hours they have to dedicate to it
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Thank you. This is very interesting to know. This looks like the high end of a regular skill based job that is not a one off situation.
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This does not count because it is not a market determined wage. It is a private transaction 