PayScale.com If I weren't a moderator, you might think I was spamming.

I was reading that this service is offered as an alternative to the US News college ranking. I believe that this list ranks universities by the average pay that graduates earn. The highest ranked schools are those where graduates earn the highest salary. Seems like a more important idea to go to a school where it is likely you will earn the most, rather than a school that is most highly ranked by other measures. Unless prestige is all you care about.

I don't know anything about this service; I was wondering if anyone else knows something about it.

http://www.payscale.com/college-salary-report-2014


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It seem kind of silly since University of Florida is listed as a starting salary of 47K without consideration for the major or school such as law, medicine, etc.

 

I don't actually know, but I think it is based on the average salary of all graduates. Now that you mention it, that does seem somewhat silly. It would be more useful if it was broken down by majors. Then you could pick the school that produced the most high earners in your field. That data might be in there somewhere, I haven't looked all that carefully.

 

It seems pretty obvious that the payscale.com rankings tend to favor (1) schools with a science/engineering/technical focus, and (2) schools located in the northeast or west coast. Both of these factors are associated with higher average salaries. For example, the #1 ranked school is Harvey Mudd, a small engineering-oriented college in southern California, which falls into both categories.

Conversely, the payscale.com rankings tend to give low rankings to (1) schools that focus on things like arts, humanities, or religious studies, and (2) schools located in the southeast or midwest. Both of these factors are associated with lower average salaries.

 

I see what you mean. So that supports my suggestion that the data might be more useful if it were broken down by major, I suppose. It seems that we are not really comparing apples to apples when we compare Harvy Mudd to liberal arts schools.

 

They do have rankings by major, but they only show the top-ranked schools in each category.

And these top-ranked schools tend to be the same well-known, name-brand institutions that show up at the top of the US News rankings.

 

But it is still fun to look at!

 

Exactly......