My ds has definitely enjoyed living in an urban area. He has recently started an MBA program, and his short list of desired destinations after completing that are all in what I would consider urban areas (though some are comparatively smaller than where he was previously living).
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My ds definitely worked more hours in MBB consulting than he did working at a FAANG company. Better work/life balance at the latter, particularly because of Covid. Many of the consulting perks (accumulating travel miles, hotel points, food, retreats, etc) dried up during the height of Covid.
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If you go to a top 50 school (or perhaps even lower), in an in-demand field, and have a high GPA (3.8+ or higher depending on the school and major), it is not hard to get a 100k+ job. It is not as rare as it is thought to be. Some of it is just inflation. Indeed some of the trades are also paying these as I read upthread. So in particular cases, you donāt even need a top 50 school.
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I know what my kid did with the money - pay very expensive rent. low 6 figures wasnāt enough.
I donāt have six figure examples - but I find it interesting that my sonās former roomie, graduating from MechE at Bama is starting at $77K (Dec grad) in Huntsville AL.
A Ga Tech Masters in Data Analytics that my son interned with this Summer was offered $83K by the company (heās a Dec grad too) because he made more than that b4 he went back to school. Thatās in Nashville.
Iāve started, based on all these threads to think my son, as a MechE might get $75K.
I know heās getting interviews - two tomorrow in fact - from indeed apps - but I hope Iām not disappointed in offers, etc.
He wants to be in manufacturing and a lot of jobs are in smaller, rural, cities.
I think itās great some kids are getting these high payiing jobs and working for top tech firms - but I think for the average kid, itās not going to be common as itās listed here, even if theyāre at a top 50 school.
I hope Iām wrong - but I donāt think I am.
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I wish him the best.
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LOL - The discussion reminds me of the memories long ago when there were parents thinking there were good odds for their little soccer (or football or little league) kiddo to someday get a full tuition sports scholarship. Yes, it happens. But not often
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Much of the discussion about 6 figure salaries relates to software engineering in a high cost of living area, such as Silicon Valley. One does not need to attend a USNWR ranked top 50 school to obtain such positions. For example, the median reported salary for San Jose State Software Engineering is 6 figures.
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I am saying you donāt need to be only in the bayarea. And you donāt need to be only in CS. There are a broader set of choices. In CS though, I am also hearing about fully WFH jobs that pay very well.
My son had two offers that interested him enough that he was heavily conflicted. One paid $79k in PA, the other over $100k in CA. As we were going over the differences, I pointed out that the down payment on a house near the higher offer would buy a house outright in the town with the lower offer. He ended up at the job that paid more, but it was purely because it was the most intriguing of the two.
I think CA skews this heavily. Outside of upper east coast banking, Iād have to guess that $100k jobs straight out of a BS are the exception.
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There are lots of COL (Cost of Living) calculators online. Not a precise thing, but very good for general idea.
Example - Nerdwallet COL shows $100K San Francisco salary as about same as $57k in Denver
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Regarding software engineering type positions , hiring typically involves numerous tech interview questions that require CS-specific knowledge to answer correctly, which makes it uncommon for non-CS related majors to be hired for such positions. Many positions specifically state that CS related major is required in the job listed. Attending a top ## USNWR ranked school does not give you a pass on this technical knowledge requirement.
Investment banking and consulting can be far more sensitive to school name than tech, and less sensitive to field of major. However, six figure starting salary positions in such industries are often quite competitive, including for grads of top ## USNWR collegesā¦
For example, in Yaleās 2021 first destination survey, grads of only a single major reported a 6 figure median salary ā computer science. And the overwhelming majority of those high salary CS grads reported working in high cost of living areas, particularly CA and NY. The portion of Yale CS grads not working in not high cost of living was too low to have a notable influence on median. Other high ranked USNWR colleges with larger portion of grads working in lower cost of living areas often report different results. For example, USNWR ranks GeorgiaTech 6th in CS. GT grads have also a high rate of co-ops, so often great past experience at Georgia companies that higher them. Yet the CS grads who remained in Georgia did not report a 6-figure median salary, while the CS grads who worked in CA or NY reported median salaries of $140k+.
In the Yale survey, the vast majority of econ grads worked in finance and consulting (most common employers were Morgan Stanley, Bain, and JP Morgan), yet the median for econ majors was well under 6 figures. Some other common majors had median salaries of $40k or less. Outside of few specific and limited fields, 6-figure starting salaries appeared to be uncommon at Yale.
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I meant outside of the software profession ā as mentioned upthread there seem to be other jobs such as Defense companies in remote locations, nursing etc that offered good pay.
Also,
is likely to be just grad school stipend when it comes to Yale grads.
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I very much doubt that defense companies and nursing hiring is primarily limited USNWR top ## colleges. In any case, it does not appear than many Yale grads are obtaining 6-figure starting salary positions in such industries.
āThe salary information below is self-reported by graduates employed full-time in the U.Sā ā only graduates employed full time are included in the median salary totals. Students pursuing grad degrees are assigned to a separate category. Across the full college, 68% of Yale grads were in the working full time category, and 17% of Yale grads were in the attending grad or professional school category.
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In this self-reported pay survey that I posted for Princeton
The $30K bucket with 38.8% of reported students is all likely to be Grad School. I wouldnāt be surprised if Yale is the same way.
Otherwise $30k would be close to minimum wage. Maybe within this bucket one should separate out the $30k cases from the $50k cases ā where the 50k cases could be teaching, performing arts or something similar.
As noted in my previous post, median salary figures in the Yale post grad survey specifically state that they only include full time employed persons working in US who are not in grad school. They also list most common employers, job industry, job positionā¦ so one can see it is not a grad school stipend.
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True, but in a recession, Iād much rather be at a consulting company than in tech. Layoffs at the former are likely to be rare, and more explicitly limited to underperformers. But we are already seeing reports of new graduates starting to be impacted in tech Exclusive: Amazon tightens its belt - Protocol
I think itās much more likely that the perks in tech companies are going to be squeezed hard, whereas travel related perks in consulting are already coming back. And of course, in many cases the RSU component of pay for FAANG employees who started last year is now worth meaningfully less than in their original offers.
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Every time when there was a discussion on salaries of new grads, some talked about averages, while others talked about numbers from the right tail of the distribution of outcomes. No wonder we never reached any consensus. 
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The >100k cohort is not a ārare right tailā at my kidās school. It seems to be some 30-35% of the self reported group that happens to be a one quarter of the full class size. It is still a tail, but probably not rare. So perhaps I may be excused to think fluidly about these jobs :-). All caveats apply ā high COL jobs. In tech or finance or similar.
I feel like itās my public service announcement that my niece and her fiancĆ© in IB did not graduate from top schools. Neither did yet both have been very successful in IB.
Both were very motivated and successful in undergrad though.
I have a nephew who is working in software development with a math major undergrad. Lots of testing for those jobs.
Yikes on the 100k being equivalent to 57k in Denver. I think of Denver as being expensive in housing!
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