Who’s pulling in the big bucks?

March 15, 2010 by Taylor Hannigan

Posted in: In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views

Plenty of schools provide a decent return on investment. But this one is tops when it comes to mid-career median salary.

PayScale.com’s 2009 College Salary Report slices and dices salary statistics in a number of interesting ways. Perhaps one of the most telling questions it answers: About 10 years after graduation, which school’s grads are earning the most?

The answer, according PayScale, is (insert drum roll here): Dartmouth College. PayScale says the mid-career median salary of Dartmouth grads is $129,000.

The Ivy League is well-represented among the top 10, most of which are separated from one another by a very slim margin.

Rounding out the top 10:

2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology ($126,000)

3. Harvard University ($126,000)

4. Harvey Mudd College ($125,000)

5. Stanford University ($124,000)

6. Princeton University ($124,000)

7. Colgate University ($122,000)

8. University of Notre Dame ($121,000)

9. Yale University ($120,000)

10. University of Pennsylvania ($118,000)

Does anything on this list surprise you? Please tell us what you think in the comments section below.

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Tags: Dartmouth College, Ivy League, salary

5 Responses to “Who’s pulling in the big bucks?”

Gerald V. Lalonde Says:
March 18th, 2010 at 12:49 pm
In this list Notre Dame surprises me. In my long familiarity with Catholic academia, their pay scale seemed to rest on the proposition that “charity begins at home.”
Bill Eisenhardt Says:
March 18th, 2010 at 12:51 pm
You apparently did not include any data from the six state maritime colleges. While somewhat specialized (although most have business and marine science majors etc.) they are no more narrow focused than the NM School of Mines or Wentworth Tech. and would compete quite well in starting salaries and mid-career salaries.
Mike Folkoff Says:
March 18th, 2010 at 2:11 pm
How about the other 50% below 125K? I am not saying there aren’t talented students at these schools. Without trying to seem snarky, could it be that to some degree, this is the rich, or nouveau rich, getting richer?
Professor XYZ Says:
March 18th, 2010 at 5:02 pm
Wow!!! What a surprise. Rich spoiled kids who go to expensive colleges land high paying jobs within their rich family’s business… or they land a high paying job because of thier families connections to other rich people.
Big D Says:
March 22nd, 2010 at 12:41 pm
It would be interesting to see a comparison between these student salaries and that of their teachers?
The very teacher(s) that educated them to go out into the world and pull down an income like that are woefully under paid in comparison – something is wrong here, it seems to me that the system is broken!