However, an employer can check the applicant’s college courses and grades to get a more direct assessment of how the applicant did in college.
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I’m sure they still do.
transcripts are a lot more important than students realize. Rigor, rigor, rigor.
You think recruiters don’t know the difference between your colleges two semester sequence in statistics which is taken by engineers, physics majors, applied math majors, vs. “statistical concepts” which is taken by marketing and “International business” majors?
Recruiters know what Directed Studies is at Yale (super rigorous) and they know what a seminar in “Humor in post-war Literature is” at the College of Fun (not rigorous).
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I agree with your two additional reasons. This is why I believe brand matters.
I’m not sure how you define a large firm.
IME it’s cost-efficient for any-sized firm to only recruit on campus at a limited number of places. Whether elite or not. I’m quite certain Walmart recruits the bulk of its home office associates from the University of Arkansas. Same for Tyson Foods.
Anyone can apply anywhere, but most companies are definitely going to prefer whatever schools have proven to have the best record both in terms of quality and retention of employees.
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One of the firms my son interviewed at had a goal of having half the interviewers be from the same college my son attends, and the other half from other colleges.
The ones from the same college mentioned specific classes from the transcript by name when asking questions, and in some cases the interviewer was taught by the same professor.
Yep, they certainly understood the rigor of the transcript.
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Exactly, and the brands aren’t the same for every company.
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Presumably, they also see PHYS UN1001 at Columbia as not that rigorous.
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Ha! That’s funny. We had that class title too!
Companies have always maintained relationships with certain colleges when they do entry level recruiting. It just makes sense. You can’t be everywhere and so you concentrate your college fair attendance and posting of entry level positions with career services at select colleges. Sometimes it is arbitrary (an CEO or HR person who went to a school) and sometimes it is a tradition (we have always recruited at NNN college) and sometimes it is based upon performance (we like the recruits we have gotten from NN college last year).
I don’t think my daughter was asked for a transcript from any of her potential co-op employees or any of the places she interviewed with when graduating. They asked about major and GPA but none requested a transcript to see which courses she took.
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There are many other factors in choosing where to recruit. For example, it’s quite common for companies to recruit at colleges that are located in a similar region to the job, particularly smaller companies. All of the small companies I have worked for did not attend college career events at any out of state colleges. Most didn’t recruit beyond a few hours drive.
Students attending the big nearby public are more likely to prefer staying in the region than students at a college 3000 miles away. It’s also less costly to visit the college for career events, less costly to fly grads down to interview, etc. This can lead to unique networks and special connections at nearby colleges.
Earlier in the thread, I linked to a survey of hundreds of employers. As a whole, they ranked college reputation as the least influential factor in evaluating new grads for hiring positions. When asked how attending different types of college would influence if they were more/less likely to hire on a scale of 1-5, the averages were as follows. Employers as a whole did not report much preference for eliteness/selectivity of college, so long as the college was known.
Public Flagship = 3.87
Nationally Known College = 3.78 (57% more likely to consider, 1% less likely to consider)
Elite College = 3.77 (56% more likely to consider, 3% less likely to consider)
Regionally Known College = 3.70 (56% more likely to consider, 1% less likely to consider)
Local College = 3.56 (47% more likely to consider, 3% less likely to consider)
– Large Gap –
Unknown College = 2.61 (6% more likely to consider, 34% less likely to consider)
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The same curriculum can be covered more rigorously. It often is.
To put things in perspective, 13% of American workers made more than 100k in 2021.
The annual income of over 34% of American households exceeds $100,000.
I’m not sure about accuracy of these statistics.
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Here is an individual income percentile calculator by age:
Percentile for $100,000 income at various ages:
| Age | Percentile | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 18 | 99 | 99th percentile is $65,002 |
| 22 | 99 | 99th percentile is $93,691 |
| 26 | 93 | |
| 30 | 87 | |
| 35 | 79 | |
| 40 | 78 | |
| 50 | 77 | |
| 60 | 74 | |
| 70 | 76 |
So $100,000 income at age 22 (when traditional-age college students graduate after four years in college) is rather unusual.
However, after a decade or two in the labor force, $100,000 income is more common, though still the minority.
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This answered the original question. Only <1% 22 yr old earn a six figure base salary so its not common at all. I guess its higher among 22 year olds who graduate college but still not as high as it seems by reading this thread.
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The median age when receiving bachelor’s degree is ~23. If you look at earnings at 24, the table reports $100k is 96th percentile. One also needs to consider that the stats include all eligible persons, not just grads from 4-year college who work full time and are not in grad school. I’d expect the actual number for full-time employed bachelor’s degree recipients is quite small, but well above 1%.
Many individual colleges lists portion of grads reporting earnings of >$100k. Many such reports suggest well above 1% of full time employed grads earn >$100k. For example, Penn State says 9% of full-time employed grads earn $100k, and Florida Tech says 18% earn $100k. The previously listed SD figures suggest it’s ~14% for Cornell. Note that all 3 of these colleges have a larger than typical portion of grads who major in CS or pursue fields associated with higher earnings. Colleges in lower cost of living areas with smaller portion pursuing high salary fields may be substantially lower. For example, using SD with normal distribution assumptions, I get only 1-2% for UCF.
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While it is not normal for a student out of undergrad to start out making 100K per year, I would suspect that it is “more normal” for most posters on CC to see that than the average person. Since over 2 million degrees were conferred at 4 year schools, even a 1 percent yield of those graduates making 100K would mean over 20,000 graduates are starting out at that number (But I suspect the percentage is a little higher among college graduates).
Out of the students that my 2022 college graduate knows who are hitting that number from her HS class, we are talking about several students from Ivy League schools, 2 Georgia Tech graduates (one with a 3.9+ GPA and a double Major who did multiple co-ops and another who finished with her undergrad degree and Masters in 4 years) and a CS graduate from a non-flagship state school who graduated a semester early, interned at her company for 2 summers and now works in a high COL area. Each of those young adults are in well compensated fields and are extraordinary if you ask me. Add in inflation and a tight job market and we should see more 100K jobs being offered out of undergrad than ever.
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There is not necessarily a trajectory to earn significantly more, but Administrative Assistants earn $100k+ In certain areas. My hunch is that many recent college grads could run circles around most of the current field. And most jobs like this offer flexibility to work from home now one day each week. Not necessarily what most go to college for, but if all you want is $100k in a high COL area, it is available.
Deleted. Answer on other thread!
The chart with earnings percentiles across the country is astounding to me. I’m in a high cost of living area and much under 100k a year would be the poverty line. One couldn’t own a home on that income. My son has had a very difficult time finding a rental, one bedroom, he can afford making 68k a year with a company car, gas, and insurance covered.
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35 posts were split to a new thread: Rent prices for young grads