Whose Graduates Get Highest Salaries? Graduates from public or private colleges?
This post is based on a report titled “Elite Liberal-Arts Colleges Aren’t Producing the Highest-Earning Elites“, by Bourree Lam, TheAtlantic.com, 11/4/2015.
According to the Atlantic.com, a new analysis by the Wall Street Journal which used data from U.S. government’s the College Scorecard website indicates interesting but somewhat expected answers about college graduates’ earnings.
The analysis revealed that the median earning of graduates from half of the top liberal-arts colleges in the U.S. was below $50,000 U.S. dollars, 10 years after graduation.
“Graduates from top research universities fared better – most earned more than $50,000 at the 10-year mark, with a third making more than $70,000, ” says the Atlantic.com
Please keep in mind that the College Scorecard data which were used for the Wall Street Journal’s analysis are only gathered from graduates who received federal student aid. However, not all college students apply for federal student aid.
Whose graduates have the highest salaries? Below is a table presented by nerdwallet.com.
| School | Average Salary |
| 1)Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science |
$89,832 |
| 2)California Institute of Technology | $83,750 |
| 3)Stanford University Engineering |
$74,467 |
| 4)Harvey Mudd College | $72,500 |
| 5)New York University College of Nursing |
$70,236 |
| 6)University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering & Applied Science |
$70,123 |
| 7)Texas A&M University – College Station College of Engineering |
$69,084 |
| 8)Massachusetts Institute of Technology | $68,320 |
| 9)Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Institute of Technology (College of Engineering) |
$68,317 |
| 10)Georgia Institute of Technology College of Computing |
$67,667 |
| 11)Cornell University College of Engineering |
$67,422 |
| 12)University of Pennsylvania Wharton School |
$67,105 |
| 13)University of Virginia School of Engineering & Applied Science |
$65,890 |
| 14)University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign College of Engineering |
$65,842 |
| 15)Colorado School of Mines | $65,831 |
| 16)Carnegie Mellon University Tepper School of Business |
$65,043 |
| 17)Georgia Institute of Technology College of Engineering |
$64,000 |
| 18)Princeton University | $63,674 |
| 19)Stevens Institute of Technology | $63,183 |
| 20)University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign School of Chemical Sciences |
$63,071 |
| 21)University of Michigan Ross School of Business |
$62,593 |
| 22)University of Notre Dame College of Engineering |
$62,588 |
| 23)New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business |
$62,189 |
| 24)Carnegie Mellon University College of Fine Arts |
$62,065 |
| 25)Lehigh University College of Engineering & Applied Science |
$61,700 |