<p>So what is Richmond's true starting salary for business grads? On the Businessweek rankings, which the info should be pretty reliable, it said the starting salary was $55,000 a year. On the website it said it was $40,000-$44,000 a year, and on this site it said it was $47,300 a year (Top</a> Liberal Arts Colleges By Salary Potential).
I was really dissapointed to learn that the average salary was 40 G's when thinking it was 55,000. Maybe some of this info is for the university as a whole, and many of the "fluff" majors dillute or bring down the average. But I just dont see how it can go down $15,000. </p>
<p>Any thoughts for a prospective Business Student?</p>
<p>prep, I looked on UR’s site for the $40-44k that you saw. I’m assuming it was from the CDC’s site ([Student</a> Post-Graduation Outcomes - Career Development Center - University of Richmond](<a href=“Career Services - University of Richmond”>Career Services - University of Richmond)). You have to remember that the survey includes EVERYONE, not just the b-school kids. </p>
<p>Another thing to keep in mind, is that the survey may ask for just “base salary.” In that case, those that respond may not be including bonuses or other forms of compensation. For example, in my second year out of school, my bonus was nearly 40% of my total compensation (investment banking), but when filling out the survey, I think I remember putting just my base salary. With another firm, I received equity compensation, which also would not have been included. </p>
<p>One final thought as well. UR has a lot of students that are very service-orientated. I had a large number of friends who went to work for non-profit organizations. While the salary may not be “impressive,” the rewards for some of them were immeasurable to those individuals.</p>
<p>Spider so you are a Richmond grad? Richmond is one of my four “possible” schools I am applying to. I was deciding between Richmond, Bucknell, and Colgate. I feel like I made the rich choice. As oppose to the other two, the weather is nice, great school, great greek life, and a great city right near it. How do you feel that the Richmond business program compares to other Bschools or LAC’s. I feel like the Businessweek site gave a good measurement. Also however if you dont mind me asking, is $55,000 an average base salary? Because Wharton’s $70,000 is the base salary, and Fordham’s $57,000 is their base salary. This is without signing bonus and yearly bonuses. Does $55,000 sound right?</p>
<p>Go Spiders!</p>
<p>prep, I can’t really speak on other schools’ programs, as I didn’t go there, and really didn’t have a lot of friends from HS who attended the top schools for business (aside from those that went to ND). That said, I was very happy with my education and wished I had put more into it while I was there. I feel that it has continued to improve since my departure. My Dad I and used to joke that the school’s reputation was about 10 years behind the quality of instruction. I think I’m seeing that finally be played out with regards to the upward movements in the rankings since I first arrived.</p>
<p>You seem very hung up on starting salary. Frankly, I’m not sure what an “average base salary” is for my cohorts because I really don’t talk salary with most of my peers. I had some friends go to bulge bracket IB’s and make 6 figures their first year (but not much on a per hour basis), I knew of one that landed an IB role in Richmond with the same terms. A lot of accounting firms were paying ~$40,000 to start then (in Richmond at least).</p>
<p>One thing you need to think about is where you want to live after graduation. Making $50,000 in my hometown for example would be the equivalent of $123,515 in Manhattan. So you’d be better off making fewer dollars in certain parts of the country over the others. </p>
<p>Long and short of it is I would worry less about “average base salary” surveys that are self-reported, and look on the career development sites of the schools you’re looking at and see if the companies that have hired grads are the types of companies you want to work for.</p>
<p>Also, looking at your list of other schools, it appears as though you’re looking at some BIG schools (except for Lehigh, which I understand is due to engineering). UR is pretty different from Tulane, Miami, GWU, Duke and Penn.</p>
<p>Spider,
Im a city kid going to a top New England Prep School in NH. Location and such is really now important to me, but I just want a great college experience. I’m just going to be happy going to College. Some kids at my school are applying to all NESCAC’s, greta LAC’s in the middle of nowhere, whereas my list varies. I’ll apply to a city school and then a rural school, I have no preference.</p>
<p>But I absolutely agree with you about not looking at salaries rather companies. Great info thanks alot!</p>
<p>Also one more thing,
While I would really love going to Richmond, my dream school is UVA, but it is just way too hard to get in from out of state, and also I feel like the financial aid would be better. Do you think richmond is similar to UVA, not in size I mean, but same type of culture, campus, people, greek life, etc.?</p>
<p>prep, I didn’t go to UVA, so I can’t really speak about it too much. I have a decent number of friends that went there and some loved it and others didn’t care much for it. UR has some preppy kids on campus, but the entire UVA culture appeared to me to be that way. The campuses (or “grounds” if you’re a UVA student) are completely different. UVA is about 5x the size and has a large number of grad students.</p>
<p>It sounds like you’re interested in a work hard, play hard type place. If that’s what you want, then you can definitely find people who will join in with you at UR.</p>