College Grads: Which Ones Earn the Most?

[WarriorHal]

by Bridget Quigg, PayScale.com


Have you ever wondered if Stanford grads really do make the big bucks, or if a "party school" degree can still land you a high-paying job?

Online salary database PayScale.com put together a 2009 College Salary Report that highlights which college graduates make the highest and lowest salaries right out of college and how that changes 10 years post-graduation.

While it may be no surprise that social work came in as the least well-paid major overall in PayScale's report, you may not know that Dartmouth's grads fare better financially 10 years after college than Harvard's.

Whether you went to a small, liberal arts college or graduated from an Ivy League school, take a look at the list below to see if your alma mater made a top 10 earners list.

School Name / Starting Median Salary / Mid-Career Median Salary

1. Dartmouth College: $58,200 / $129,000
2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT): $71,100 / $126,000
3. Harvard University: $60,000 / $126,000
4. Harvey Mudd College: $71,000 / $125,000
5. Stanford University: $67,500 / $124,000
6. Princeton University: $65,000 / $124,000
7. Colgate University: $51,900 / $122,000
8. University of Notre Dame: $55,300 / $121,000
9. Yale University: $56,000 / $120,000
10. University of Pennsylvania: $60,400 / $118,000

[Coleman]

Thanks for reminding me my school is not on that list...

[groove]

we are less than $2,000 below Madison

http://www.payscale.com/best-colleges/midwestern-colleges.asp

[WarriorHal]

I should have added:

School Name / Starting Median Salary / Mid-Career Median Salary

University of Wisconsin (UW) - Madison $48,800 $88,300

Marquette University $47,700 $86,700

And Tom Crean's greener pasture:

Indiana University (IU), Bloomington $46,000 $82,600

[Ari Gold]

I'd like to throw this out there though that, with pretty much the exception of ND and maybe Dartmouth or Colgate, those 10  schools are in pretty mid-upper to upper class coastal areas. I figure the Standard of living being higher has to account for some of the differences in salary. Whereas starting at $47+ and making a career median at $86+ can lead to a pretty comfortable way of life in the Midwest

[ChicosBailBonds]

I'd like to throw this out there though that, with pretty much the exception of ND and maybe Dartmouth or Colgate, those 10  schools are in pretty mid-upper to upper class coastal areas. I figure the Standard of living being higher has to account for some of the differences in salary. Whereas starting at $47+ and making a career median at $86+ can lead to a pretty comfortable way of life in the Midwest

Absolutely.  Most of those salaries you couldn't live out here in California on some of them.

[muballer10]

Agreed with above. You also can't ignore the fact that MU and UW are essentially the same, but with $50K+ less debt attached. Damn Badgers.