Getting your bachelor’s degree will, in most cases, help you earn more.
In 2022, the median earnings of workers ages 25 to 34 with bachelor’s degrees were nearly 60% higher than those in the same age group who only had a high school diploma, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Holding a degree from certain schools may pay off even more. The median earnings of graduates from Massachusetts Institute of Technology are roughly $114,000 higher than the earnings of workers with only a high school diploma in Massachusetts, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The publication recently ranked U.S. colleges that have the largest impact on graduates’ salary outcomes, and MIT came in at No. 1.
To rank how much each school affects graduates’ salaries, WSJ considered each school’s “salary impact score” and the estimated time it would take graduates to pay off debt, based on the average net price, what students pay after aid and scholarships. To determine the “salary impact score,” the publication estimated what students could expect to earn regardless of the college they attended, compared with salary outcomes at each specific school.
Though a degree from Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California, is expected to give graduates a slightly larger salary boost than an MIT degree, MIT’s relatively lower average cost of attendance gives it an advantage.
Many of the top-ranked colleges for salary impact attract students interested in pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering and math, which generally offer higher salaries than jobs in humanities and social science fields. MIT graduates from the class of 2024 most commonly went on to work in information and computer technology or finance, according to the school’s survey data.
Here are the 10 U.S. colleges with the best salary outcomes, according to The Wall Street Journal.
1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Average net price: $19,813
Value added to graduate salary: $114,042
Time to pay off net price: 8 months
2. Stanford University
Average net price: $12,136
Value added to graduate salary: $94,725
Time to pay off net price: 6 months
3. Princeton University
Average net price: $10,555
Value added to graduate salary: $89,368
Time to pay off net price: 5 months
4. Harvey Mudd College
Average net price: $32,492
Value added to graduate salary: $114,261
Time to pay off net price: 1 year, 1 month
5. Georgia Institute of Technology
Average net price: $13,289
Value added to graduate salary: $78,827
Time to pay off net price: 8 months
6. California Institute of Technology
Average net price: $18,902
Value added to graduate salary: $95,499
Time to pay off net price: 9 months
7. University of Pennsylvania
Average net price: $31,229
Value added to graduate salary: $91,356
Time to pay off net price: 1 year, 4 months
8. Missouri University of Science and Technology
Average net price: $13,773
Value added to graduate salary: $59,624
Time to pay off net price: 11 months
9. Carnegie Mellon University
Average net price: $31,671
Value added to graduate salary: $92,219
Time to pay off net price: 1 year, 4 months
10. Babson College
Average net price: $38,876
Value added to graduate salary: $96,561
Time to pay off net price: 1 year, 7 months
Rankings like these, which focus on earnings data, can weigh heavily toward schools with large shares of students who go into engineering or consulting jobs “where they earn a ton of money,” Jeff Selingo, a higher education expert, recently told CNBC Make It.
And while a degree from one of these top-ranked schools may improve your chances at landing a job and a high salary, employers are increasingly focused on the skills you acquire while you’re in college, rather than the school that granted your degree, Selingo said.
“More selective colleges do sometimes have better earnings outcomes,” Selingo acknowledged. But, “employers are increasingly hiring not just on the college you went to and what you majored in, but can you actually do the job.”
Regardless of where you go to school, making a concerted effort to learn skills that will be valuable in your career, such as artificial intelligence or data visualization, may wind up being more important than the school you went to. That could mean finding an internship or getting additional training for software or tools commonly used in your industry of choice.
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