Because of today's down economy, entry- and mid-level employees are facing lower salaries, according to the 2011 College Salary Report by PayScale Inc.
Princeton University boasts the highest mid-career salary for its graduates for the first time, and it is the lone school with median mid-career pay greater than $125,000 per year, the report finds. The report was first conducted in 2008, and before the recession hit, Dartmouth College, Princeton, MIT, Stanford University and Yale University had mid-career medians of over $125,000.
"The financial collapse and jobless recovery continues to affect pay, even at mid-career – there is even some evidence of accelerating wage decreases for the top schools," says Dr. Al Lee, director of quantitative analysis at PayScale. "As in years past, it is very much about the degree: engineering- and health care-focused schools top the list."
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SUNY Maritime College sits as the best-ranked public university at No. 12. This is the first time the school entered the list, and it is the only state university in the top 20. The top-20 schools' average mid-career pay is $112,200, a 2.8 percent decline from 2010 and a 5.3 percent decline from 2008. Of all 1,004 schools surveyed, average mid-career pay comes in at $73,100, which is a 0.7 percent drop from 2010.
California and the northeast schools dominate the top 20, with only the Colorado School of Mines at No. 6, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology at No. 9, Missouri University of Science and Technology at No. 15 and Georgia Institute of Technology at No. 18 outside of the regions.
Health care schools represent four of the top 20: Loma Linda at No. 3, Molloy at No. 5, Thomas Jefferson at No. 11 and Felician at No. 14, and 14 of the top 20 have strong engineering and science focuses.
"The downward effect on starting pay for college grads of the jobless recovery is clear in the data," Lee says. "For example, the average starting pay for graduates of the top 10 schools is $63,900. Good pay, but down 1.5 percent from a year earlier. In 2008, before the financial collapse, four schools had median starting pay above $70,000 per year: Cal Tech, MIT, Harvey Mudd and Stanford – in the 2011 list, no school does."
The PayScale 2011 College Salary Report analyzes more than 2,500 data points, including salary data for 120 bachelor's degree majors from 1,004 U.S.-based undergraduate colleges and universities.
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