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Location, prestige, academic reputation and tuition are major factors for students in the college selection process, but post-graduate salary is something rarely taken into consideration.
Although salaries depend heavily on a graduate's field of work, companies are willing to pay a premium for students hailing from the nation's top universities. But which undergraduate institutions offer the most valuable educations?
[Click here to find an online degree program]
Recently, PayScale.com released a report on the highest salary potential among the nation's top colleges, and from this data, colleges and universities can be ranked by the mid-career median salaries of its graduates. For schools with the same mid-career median salaries, starting median salary determines their relative rank.
©Harvey Mudd College |
1. Harvey Mudd College
Mid-career median salary: $126,000
Starting median salary: $68,900
Location: Claremont, Calif.
2010-2011 tuition: $40,390
College rank: 18 (Liberal Arts)
Acceptance rate: 34%
Total undergrad enrollment: 757
©Princeton University |
2. Princeton University
Mid-career median salary: $123,000
Starting median salary: $58,900
Location: Princeton, N.J.
2010-2011 tuition: $36,640
College rank: 2 (National)
Acceptance rate: 10%
Total undergrad enrollment: 5,113
©Dartmouth College |
3. Dartmouth College
Mid-career median salary: $123,000
Starting median salary: $54,100
Location: Hanover, N.H.
2010-2011 tuition: $40,437
College rank: 9 (National)
Acceptance rate: 13%
Total undergrad enrollment: 4,196
©Steve Dunwell/Getty Images |
4. Harvard University
Mid-career median salary: $121,000
Starting median salary: $57,300
Location: Cambridge, Mass.
2010-2011 tuition: $38,416
College rank: 1 (National)
Acceptance rate: 7%
Total undergrad enrollment: 6,655
©CalTech |
5. California Institute of Technology (CalTech)
Mid-career median salary: $120,000
Starting median salary: $69,900
Location: Pasadena, Calif.
2010-2011 tuition: $36,282
College rank: 7 (National)
Acceptance rate: 15%
Total undergrad enrollment: 951
©Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
6. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Mid-career median salary: $119,000
Starting median salary: $68,300
Location: Cambridge, Mass.
2010-2011 tuition: $39,212
College rank: 7 (National)
Acceptance rate: 11%
Total undergrad enrollment: 4,232
©Stanford University |
7. Stanford University
Mid-career median salary: $119,000
Starting median salary: $60,200
Location: Stanford, Calif.
2010-2011 tuition: $39,201
College rank: 5 (National)
Acceptance rate: 8%
Total undergrad enrollment: 6,602
©Colgate University |
8. Colgate University
Mid-career median salary: $119,000
Starting median salary: $48,700
Location: Hamilton, N.Y.
2010-2011 tuition: $41,870
College rank: 21 (Liberal Arts)
Acceptance rate: 32%
Total undergrad enrollment: 2,825
Click here to see the full list of Colleges That Bring the Highest Paycheck 2011
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When you click to find out the full list of colleges, it takes you to page where you can find out more about the college debt crisis! What a bummer!
Big business owes this country a lot. The government has been kind to them for a long time. It is time for them to help the average family help her son or daughter have the education that these wealthy "elitists" get because Daddy, Mommy, and their grandfathers, all are legacies. We are moving to a two class system in this country at an alarming rate. Let me get this right, I can't a GOOD job with Goldman Sachs, unless I get to go to Stanford, I get to go to Stanford if my mother and father both are legacies. Once. I get into Goldman Sachs, learn the ropes and bet on mortgages that I know will fail, the feds bail me out. That does not sound like an elitist form of government, does it? This is also after all the 50K -60K jobs have either been outsourced to china @ 25 % of the salaries! Manufacturing jobs with livable salaries attached to them, BYE BYE. So what you are left with are salaries that pay 10 to 12 dollars an hour or $175,000.00. Sounds fair to me. Welcome to the new capodemocracy"
Shame on you yahoo. Nowadays, people want to go to school mainly to make big bucks later in life. Not saying that it is bad, but more and more people are just taking classes without the sake of wanting to learn. Taking classes to merely "get an A in the class". How do I know? If I ask a person who recieved an A in Plant & Animal Biology class a simple conceptual question, "What is the first animal to have a backbone?" That clueless person wouldn't know the answer. Education has become a burden for the majority and it is a sad thing to see in today's society. (Btw, answer to the question is: fish)
gfy harvard and yale...
your brightest, unethical, greedy, scumbag, parasitic, silver spoon fed graduates caused the collapse the u.s. and world economy!
god bless american greed & ignorance
Oil refinery worker, Carson, CA. mid-career salary $149,000 no college.
$200,000 to $300,000 for tuition, its ridiculous
I found the pictures of college landscapes relatively more interesting than the reports. It seems that the US colleges and universities are intensely preoccupied with political/intelligence global networking more than anything else. WikiLeaks cables is providing some evidence of this purported claim.
I graduated from Dartmouth (#3), Ivy League college and all, but all i've encountered is alot of jealousy in every job i've had. I guess they're intimidated that I might take their job. It's sad to have experienced this. This is why i'm starting my own business.
My experience in college was the more a professor seemed like a cant do in the real world the more difficult the class was when it came to exams and taking notes.Those prestigious colleges employ plenty of them.
See today's average rates across the country.
Loan Type | Today | Last Week |
---|---|---|
30 Year Fixed | 4.96% | 5.19% |
15 Year Fixed | 4.29% | 4.55% |
1 Year ARM | 3.07% | 3.06% |
30 Year Fixed Jumbo | 5.51% | 5.57% |
5/1 ARM | 3.80% | 3.77% |
3/1 ARM | 3.72% | 3.57% |
Loan Type | Today | Last Week |
---|---|---|
$30K Home Equity Loan | 7.15% | 7.16% |
$50K Home Equity Loan | 7.07% | 7.07% |
$75K Home Equity Loan | 7.10% | 7.09% |
$30K HELOC | 5.09% | 5.08% |
$50K HELOC | 4.77% | 4.77% |
$75K HELOC | 4.73% | 4.73% |
Loan Type | Today | Last Week |
---|---|---|
36 Month New Car Loan | 5.35% | 5.33% |
48 Month New Car Loan | 5.44% | 5.42% |
60 Month New Car Loan | 5.50% | 5.49% |
72 Month New Car Loan | 3.78% | 3.78% |
36 Month Used Car Loan | 5.95% | 5.94% |
48 Month Used Car Loan | 5.77% | 5.76% |
Card Type | Today | Last Week |
---|---|---|
Low Interest Credit Cards | 11.91% | 11.91% |
Cash Back Credit Cards | 12.48% | 12.48% |
Balance Transfer Credit Cards | 12.82% | 12.73% |
Business Credit Cards | 12.91% | 12.91% |
Student Credit Cards | 13.31% | 13.96% |
Airline Credit Cards | 14.24% | 14.24% |