Payscale.com recently released their rankings on what they consider to be the best colleges to attend. Their rankings are based on which colleges and degrees end up paying off the most for graduates.
Their salary survey, completed by 1.2 million users on the PayScale.com website over the last year, determine the average salary a grad should expect to receive both beginning and mid-career by college, major, and location. The overall goal of the survey is to help determine which undergraduate educations are the best investment, allowing prospective students (and their parents) to be able to figure the Return On Investment of going to college.
It may come as no surprise as to what colleges the highest paid first-year grads are coming from: Ivy League Colleges and Engineering (Tech) Schools.
Highest Starting Median Salary by College
| College | Salary |
| 1. Loma Linda University | $71,400 |
| 2. MIT | $71,100 |
| 3. Harvey Mudd College | $71,000 |
| 4. Cal Tech | $69,700 |
| 5. Stanford | $67,500 |
| 6. Carnegie Mellon | $65,300 |
| 7. Princeton | $65,000 |
| 8. Polytechnic University of New York | $62,700 |
| 9. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute | $62,500 |
| 10. Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology | $61,100 |
| 10. Cooper Union | $61,100 |
| 10. Worcester Polytechnic Institute | $61,100 |
| 13. Penn | $60,400 |
| 14. Colorado School of Mines | $60,000 |
| 14. Harvard | $60,000 |
| 16. Stevens Institute of Technology | $59,400 |
| 17. Georgia Tech | $58,900 |
| 18. Claremont McKenna College | $58,300 |
| 19. Dartmouth | $58,200 |
| 20. Cornell | $58,000 |
Highest Mid-Career Median Salary by College
| College | Salary |
| 1. Dartmouth | $129,000 |
| 2. Harvard | $126,000 |
| 2. MIT | $126,000 |
| 4. Harvey Mudd College | $125,000 |
| 5. Princeton | $124,000 |
| 5. Stanford | $124,000 |
| 7. Colgate | $122,000 |
| 8. Notre Dame | $121,000 |
| 9. Yale | $120,000 |
| 10. Penn | $118,000 |
| 11. Bucknell University | $116,000 |
| 11. Duke University | $116,000 |
| 11. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute | $116,000 |
| 14. Cal Tech | $115,000 |
| 15. Lehigh University | $114,000 |
| 15. Polytechnic University of New York | $114,000 |
| 17. Carnegie Mellon University | $113,000 |
| 18. University of California - Berkeley | $112,000 |
| 19. Georgetown University | $111,000 |
| 19. Santa Clara University | $111,000 |
Note: The data considers those whose education went no further than a bachelor's level degree. Physicians, lawyers and others with advanced degrees were not included in the data. College data provided by campusgrotto.com.
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