Current:Home > ScamsA college degree can boost your pay — but so can your alma mater. Here are top colleges for income.-LoTradeCoin
A college degree can boost your pay — but so can your alma mater. Here are top colleges for income.
View Date:2024-12-23 20:38:07
College is viewed by many economists — and parents — as key to securing a rewarding, well-paying job. New research now indicates that which college you attend can also have a lifelong impact on your earnings, with grads from top-ranked universities such as Princeton and MIT far out-earning the typical college grad.
By mid-career, or at least 10 years after their diploma, alums of Princeton and MIT received the highest salaries among all college grads, at almost $190,000 annually on average, according to a new analysis from PayScale. Meanwhile, college graduates between 25 and 64 years old earned median incomes of $74,154 last year, according to recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Overall, the universities and colleges that lead to the best-paying careers after graduation are Ivy League colleges, technical universities such as MIT and private academies, PayScale said of its findings.
Parents and students are increasingly scrutinizing the cost of a college education and its return on investment given the soaring price of a four-year degree, which has pushed student debt up to $1.8 trillion and has saddled 44 million Americans with loans that could take years to pay off. Increasingly, researchers say there are two factors that can influence the payoff from a bachelor's degree: A student's major, as well as the college they attend.
Elite institutions can help lift a graduate's earnings, which could be through mechanisms such as alumni support networks or even bias toward grads of these schools. One recent study from Harvard economists found that the impact of getting an elite education can be significant, with grads of Ivy League schools and other top institutions 60% more likely to have incomes among the top 1% compared with those who didn't attend those colleges.
Payscale's analysis is based on alumni salary data of 3.47 million respondents, representing 2,475 associate's and bachelor's degree-granting institutions throughout the U.S.
Colleges with the lowest-earning grads
But not every college grad is raking in six-figure-plus salaries, according to PayScale. Indeed, institutions with alums who earn among the lowest mid-career salaries tend to be religious colleges and some state institutions, the analysis found.
For instance, at the bottom of its rankings are a number of Christian colleges whose grads earn slightly more than $60,000 annually at mid-career.
That could also be influenced by those colleges' focus of study, given that Americans who earn theology or related degrees tend to earn less than other college grads. Youth ministry majors earn an average of $61,700 annually at their mid-career level, PayScale found, placing that major at No. 776 out of the 799 majors tracked by the analysis.
You can search PayScale's database here for your alma mater to see what the typical grad earns at early and mid-career, with the former representing alumni with 0 to 5 years experience and the latter tracking people at least 10 years after graduation.
The top 20 colleges for mid-career pay
1. Princeton University: $189,400 (tied)
1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology: $189,400 (tied)
3. United States Naval Academy: $181,500
4. Harvey Mudd College: $179,600
5. Stanford University: $177,500
6. Babson College: $175,200
7. Colgate University: $173,800
8. Dartmouth College: $173,300
9. Santa Clara University: $173,100
10. University of Pennsylvania: $171,800
11. Harvard University: $171,400
12. United States Military Academy: $171,000
13. Williams College: $169,200
14. Stevens Institute of Technology: $168,700
15. California Institute of Technology: $168,600
16. Yale University: $168,300
17. Lehigh University: $168,200
18. Claremont McKenna College: $167,000 (tie):
18. University of Berkeley, California: $167,000 (tie)
20. United States Air Force Academy: $166,100
Top and bottom 10 majors by income at mid-career
Top 10:
1. Petroleum Engineering: $212,500
2. Operations Research & Industrial Engineering: $191,800
3. Interaction Design: $173,600
4. Applied Economics and Management: $164,400
5. Building Science: $163,100
6. Actuarial Mathematics: $160,000 (tie)
6. Operations Research: $160,000 (tie)
8. Systems Engineering: $159,100
9. Optical Science & Engineering: $158,300
10. Information & Computer Science: $157,800
Bottom 10:
1. Early Childhood & Elementary Education: $56,500
2. Outdoor Education: $55,200
3. Baking & Pastry Arts: $54,900
4. Mental health: $52,900
5. Child & Family Studies: $52,700
6. Equine Studies: $52,500
7. Addictions Counseling: $52,200
8. Nonprofit Administration: $52,100
9. Early Childhood Education: $50,600
10. Metalsmithing: $44,900
- In:
- College
veryGood! (9133)
Related
- Why Game of Thrones' Maisie Williams May Be Rejoining the George R.R. Martin Universe
- Woman plans to pay off kids' student loans after winning $25 million Massachusetts lottery prize
- Woman plans to pay off kids' student loans after winning $25 million Massachusetts lottery prize
- Taylor Swift attends Chiefs game with Brittany Mahomes – but they weren't the only famous faces there
- Jason Kelce Jokes He Got “Mixed Reviews” From Kylie Kelce Over NSFW Commentary
- Suzanne Somers’ Husband Shares the Touching Reason She’s Laid to Rest in Timberland Boots
- Cosmonauts remotely guide Russian cargo ship to space station docking after guidance glitch
- Heisman finalists: LSU QB Daniels, Oregon QB Nix, Washington QB Penix Jr., Ohio St WR Harrison Jr.
- Missing Ole Miss student declared legally dead as trial for man accused in his death looms
- Ford, Jeep, and Jaguar among 79,000 vehicles recalled: Check car recalls here
Ranking
- Watch as dust storm that caused 20-car pileup whips through central California
- Missing Idaho baby found dead by road; father in custody in connection with death of his wife
- Kenan Thompson Shares Why He Hasn’t Spoken Out About Divorce From Christina Evangeline
- Government, Corporate and Philanthropic Interests Coalesce On Curbing Methane Emissions as Calls at COP28 for Binding Global Methane Agreement Intensify
- Powell says Fed will likely cut rates cautiously given persistent inflation pressures
- US agency to watch unrecalled Takata inflators after one blows apart, injuring a driver in Chicago
- Cardi B Sparks Offset Breakup Rumors After Sharing Message on Outgrowing Relationships
- Brutal killings of women in Western Balkan countries trigger alarm and expose faults in the system
Recommendation
-
Republican Dan Newhouse wins reelection to US House in Washington
-
Ukrainian officials say Russian shelling has hit a southern city, killing 2 people in the street
-
International Ice Hockey Federation to mandate neck guards after the death of a player by skate cut
-
UK Home Secretary James Cleverly visits Rwanda to try to unblock controversial asylum plan
-
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a long record of promoting anti-vaccine views
-
Top players in the college football transfer portal? We’re tracking them all day long
-
NFL Week 13 winners, losers: Packers engineering stunning turnaround to season
-
Former U.S. ambassador Manuel Rocha arrested, accused of serving as agent of Cuba, sources say