Paycheck U

Which schools produce graduates earning the highest paychecks? That’s a question PayScale.com attempts to answer each year through a survey conducted of site users willing to provide detailed information on how much money they’re making, at what profession, after having graduated from which college or university. This year, 1.2 million college grads participated in the annual income accounting which neatly breaks schools into subcategories including top state universities, engineering schools, party schools, and top overall paycheck producers. Although the survey methodology is based on self-reported data and may not be highly scientific, the results are worth considering if return on investment is one factor in how you think about colleges. Note that the data considers only those college grads whose education went no further then bachelor’s degrees, so high rollers like doctors, dentists, and lawyers don’t skew survey results.

Not surprisingly, engineering schools produce the best starting salaries.

Engineering Schools	Starting Median Salary	Mid-Career Median Salary
MIT	$71,100	$126,000
Harvey Mudd College	$71,000	$125,000
Stanford	$67,500	$124,000
Bucknell	$56,100	$116,000
Rensselaer (RPI)	$62,500	$116,000
Cal Tech	$69,000	$115,000
Polytechnic Institute of NYU	$62,700	$114,000
Lehigh	$57,400	$114,000
Carnegie Mellon	$65,300	$113,000
UC Berkeley	$57,000	$112,000

The only Virginia school appearing on the engineering list is Virginia Tech which comes in 25^th place with a starting median salary of $52,000 and a mid-career median of $97,400.

Virginia, however, does somewhat better in the top state universities category:

State Colleges and Universities	Starting Median Salary	Mid-Career Median Salary
UC Berkeley	$57,100	$112,000
Colorado School of Mines	$60,000	$109,000
Georgia Tech	$58,900	$105,000
NJ Institute of Technology	$55,100	$104,000
UC San Diego	$50,700	$103,000
Cal Poly	$57,000	$102,000
Univ. of IL Urbana-Champaign	$53,900	$ 99,700
UC Santa Barbara	$49,700	$ 98,400
VA Tech	$52,900	$ 97,400
UVA	$52,200	$ 97,200

The top overall producers for starting salaries were Loma Linda University ($71,400), MIT ($71,100), Harvey Mudd College ($71,000), Cal Tech ($69,700) and Stanford ($67,500). The highest median mid-career salaries went to Dartmouth ($129,000), Harvard ($126,000), MIT ($126,000), Harvey Mudd College ($125,000), and Stanford/Princeton ($124,000). Beyond the top ten, Virginia public schools are represented by the College of William and Mary (27), George Mason University (46), James Madison University (118), Old Dominion (122), and Virginia Commonwealth University (196).

And as for the top party schools?

Salary Potential	Party Potential*	College or University
1	16	U of IL—Urbana Champaign
2	15	Tulane
3	9	UC Santa Barbara
4	13	U of Colorado-Boulder
5	8	University of Texas
6	1	University of Florida
7	3	Pennsylvania State University
8	19	University of Alabama
9	17	Arizona State University
10	6	Randolph Macon (VA)

*Based on the Princeton Review 2009 Top 20 Party Schools.