Yeah, the students largely select their careers and career location, just like they choose (or apply for…) their major.
@prezbucky - agree with you on the payscale ranking that only looks at salary, but the ROI one I linked too, I thought was kind of neat because they factor in tuition costs, debt, and how long it takes you to graduate (people sometimes don’t consider that if it takes you 5 or 6 yrs to graduate you end up paying a lot more). So I thought this one was ore useful than the straight up salary one.
wisteria100, sorry, but your first post in this thread makes it abundantly clear that you take an innately negative view of women’s colleges. B-)
Judging ROI fairly is a noble goal, @wisteria100, but until we can figure out ways to properly take into account major/vocational and region preferences, results are probably going to favor schools with high prevalence of STEM and Business-related majors (and resulting careers) and schools located on the coasts.
Not that kids can’t get into Finance as a Humanities major, but it’s probably somewhat harder than getting that job with a Business/Finance/Acctg/Econ degree. (it also depends on whether the students are more career-focused or grad school/PhD-focused – not all Econ majors want jobs after graduation)
And not everyone WANTS those jobs. 
Yeah, making a lot of money while working an 80-hour week, like in Finance or starting out in Law… when would you find time to enjoy the fruits of that labor? hehe
The fact that women have historically earned less than boyz may be a significant contributing factor.
Apparently being a mariner is key to ROI. 5 of the top 10 are maritime colleges of one kind or another.
So to get the most out of college it’s probably best to avoid any land-based career.
Payscale is utterly useless for this purpose on several levels.
@Consolation Couldn’t disagree with you more. Barnard is one of my favorite schools and I recommend it often
PayScale. Garbage in garbage out. The information is self reported and for a very small subset of graduates. The #27 school on this list arrives there on the basis of responses from 27 alumni, less than the number of students you’ll find in an average classroom.
^^ Actually at most of the LACs being mentioned here, average class size is well below 27. Lol
You suggested downgrading Wellesley, Smith, Mount Holyoke, and Bryn Mawr, all of which are women’s colleges that are not and never were part of a formerly male, now coed institution. Four out of the six schools you want to lower in your rankings are the only Seven Sisters that remain independent women’s colleges.
Every single one of them.
Sorry, but the pattern is all too clear.
@Consolation - and you are a grad of a 7 sister - could that be influencing your opinion?
Mass Maritime graduates about 50% engineers and about 15% business majors and charges tuition of about $11,000. Not surprising it has high ROI.
@wisteria100 , Damn straight. It undoubtedly has a bearing on my noticing your pattern.
@mastadon I’m sure all the maritime schools do (though Mass Maritime isn’t in the top ten).
But look at the junk data this list is based on.
USMM: 15 salary reports
Webb: 18 salary reports
etc.
Mass Maritime’s rank is based on exactly 20 graduates’ (self reported) salaries. They graduate about 400 students a year, and have done so for over 100 years. So their rank is based on .05% of their graduates?
@Consolation
For goodness sake, there is no ‘pattern’. I posted my opinion one time is response to @prezbucky 's list, which expressed his opinion. All the schools he listed are fine schools, I threw none off his list. I kind of see this as a fun, little thread, think you are taking it a bit too seriously.
@wisteria100 Awesome list! Glad to see my school on it!
@Sue22 I am curious which school you are referring to. Payscale does a statistical test on the sample size - that is why Amherst College does not appear in the ranking.