The Wall Street Journal reports on a new survey of 1.2 million bachelor’s degree holders, which reveals significant variations in average salaries of different graduates. Ivy League graduates earned a median starting salary 32% higher than average liberal arts college graduates, and, at ten year’s distance, earned salaries 34% higher than average liberal arts college graduates.
Experts observe that Ivy League graduates tend to gravitate towards management or advice-based careers, not to mention jobs in finance, explaining some portion of the spread. Not to mention relatively inflated northeastern pay scales.
Otherwise, though, the figure doesn’t seem much of a surprise. Obviously, in a list of some 300, involving many state schools, from Black Hills State to Eastern Washington, the eight Ivy League colleges are going to fare well.
When looking into the individual comparisons, however, the differences aren’t so vast. Sure there’s a difference between Dartmouth ($58,000 median starting salary) and, say, an average state school such as the University of Connecticut ($48,000) but that’s not especially large, and the gap between it and numerous other sate schools is even smaller: Penn State gradutes earn a median starting salary of $49,900 and grads at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign earn $52,900. Hope for us all. Take a look at the rankings yourself.
