<p>Colleges</a> That Help Grads Get Top Salaries - SmartMoney.com</p>
<p>Georgia Tech at #1, followed by a few other publics. Makes sense.</p>
<p>Some problems with this methodology:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Mix of majors differs. Georgia Tech is engineering-heavy, so of course its graduates will do well compared to those of a university that is humanities and biology heavy, even if the other university’s graduates outearn same-major graduates at Georgia Tech. Sarah Lawrence College has a low ranking here because its focus is performing arts.</p></li>
<li><p>Many students do not pay list price. If net cost after non-loan financial aid were accounted for, the Ivies with generous financial aid would likely do better, and the publics that do not give much financial aid to out-of-state students (the basis for comparison) would likely do worse.</p></li>
<li><p>Publics for in-state students would do a lot better than they do for out-of-state students.</p></li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li>Georgia Institute of Technology</li>
<li>University of Texas, Austin</li>
<li>University of Florida</li>
<li>University of Georgia</li>
<li>University of Illinois</li>
<li>Clemson University</li>
<li>Purdue University</li>
<li>Colorado School of Mines</li>
<li>Miami University (Ohio)</li>
<li>University of California, Berkeley</li>
<li>Indiana University</li>
<li>Pennsylvania State University</li>
<li>University of Rhode Island</li>
<li>University Connecticut</li>
<li>Michigan State University</li>
<li>University of Virginia</li>
<li>Univeristy of Colorado</li>
<li>College of William & Mary</li>
<li>Princeton University</li>
<li>University of New Hampshire</li>
<li>Dartmouth College</li>
<li>Harvard University</li>
<li>Carnegie-Mellon University</li>
<li>Bucknell University</li>
<li>University of Pennsylvania</li>
<li>Colgate University</li>
<li>University of Richmond</li>
<li>Cornell University</li>
<li>University of Michigan</li>
<li>Yale University</li>
</ol>
<p>ucbalumnus,</p>
<p>How do you explain public UGA (not an engineering heavy school) ranking higher than publics Purdue and Michigan (engineering heavy schools)?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Because Georgia is relatively inexpensive. It is the least expensive university in the list, so it does well in the Smart Money methodology, even though its graduates’ starting pay is the fourth lowest in the list and its graduates’ mid-career pay is the third lowest in the list.</p>
<p>Not to mention Payscale is a non-scientific self-reporting site. If you want numbers you can trust look for the school’s own placement data–if they have any.</p>
<p>I think this ranking is a good start to a good idea. It would be a lot better if we could get better statistics than payscale and if we could use the average cost students pay at a university (maybe differentiate in-state and out-of-state as well for public colleges). Of course getting this data would be a lot of work which is why SmartMoney opted for the criterias that they did.</p>
<p>However, I am glad that if anything public schools are getting some recognition. It’s not a bad place to go especially if you are in-state if you cannot afford an expensive private college!</p>
<p>Another problem is that only tuition is considered, rather than total cost of attendance. Since they are assuming OOS for the public schools, that would mean that most students looking at this type of comparison would not be commuters and would have to consider living expenses as well.</p>
<p>Some schools that would do well in Smart Money’s comparison:</p>
<p>USMA, USNA, USAFA (free, but only suitable for those planning a military officer career)
Cooper Union (since they count just tuition, divide by zero error?)
Virginia Tech (low OOS tuition, lots of engineering majors)
Cal Poly SLO (low OOS tuition, lots of engineering majors)</p>
<p>Yet another problem with payscale.com’s surveys is that they only consider alumni whose highest degree is a bachelor’s. Any school that sends a large proportion of its students on to graduate school will have a biased sample. Any school whose highest earners among its alumni are doctors and lawyers will have a biased sample.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>They count sticker price so the Cooper Union wouldn’t do as well as you think they would if they do the rankings by the book according to the rules they laid out. Technically, Cooper Union has a $36k tuition, BUT everyone gets a full-tuition scholarship. This is a perfect example of item #2 in your first post regarding methodology.</p>