W&M appeared on the WSJ top pay lists for Technology, Finance, Management Consulting, Marketing, and Law. UMD appeared only on the WSJ top pay list for Finance. W&M was ranked 5th in Finance pay among publics while UMD was ranked 17th. College Transitions has average salary information for Economics graduates. W&M and UMD are fairly similar with W&M slightly ahead (see link). UMD has 33 faculty listed vs 29 for W&M on their websites. Economics is grouped in Social Sciences in the Common Data Sets. The percentage of undergraduate students at W&M majoring in Social Sciences at W&M is nearly 2X that of UMD, but the number of students at UMD is 4.5 higher. The economics major to economics faculty ratio is probably higher at UMD than it is at W&M. Over half of college students change major at least once, so I wouldn't recommend focusing solely on major. I think OP needs to weigh the assumed cost advantage of UMD vs. potential benefit of W&M being a better size based on preferences. https://www.collegetransitions.com/dataverse/median-starting-salaries-economics/ |
Actually, they have molecular engineering now. But they didn’t have any engineering when I got my BA in 1996, and I still lament having gone to a fake university! |
Then that list is really meaningless. If you look at the list in a vacuum, it's saying that an engineering major should go to U of NMX because their grads make $100K? What list shows U of NMX as Top 20 for engineering? I don't know what factors are in that WSJ list - does it include graduate students? Do you know what's in NM? Los Alamos labs. The university there could be a feed to the lab just like SJSU is a feeder to SV companies. But, no one would say U of NMX engineering is Top 20. Again, you're looking at the list in a vacuum. |
It is a valid data point. Valid data points aren't meaningless. There can be multiple valid data points. |
You are utterly fooling yourself. |
A data point is meaningless without understand why that data is the way it is. |
People more concerned with prestige will choose Harvard CS. Serious CS students wouldn't choose Harvard for CS over UMD CS. |
Harvard maybe "better" for CS than UMD, but not Engineering. I don't think Harvard is known for their CS/Eng programs. |
Yet Harvard engineers are paid the most on average than any school public or private. This is for Harvard grads that work in engineering…not the ones that work for a hedge fund. |
What about University of Indiana or University of Oklahoma which are 11 and 12 on the engineering list? Again, why isn’t UMD even on the list at all? |
What is a serious student for CS? Someone planning to get a PhD in the subject? |
IDK, but here is the reporter if you care to ask: "Ms. Rhone is a Wall Street Journal reporter in New York. She can be reached at kailyn.rhone@wsj.com". |
That's your assertion. It fits your narrative. My assertion is that the vast majority would choose Harvard for CS over UMD CS if they actually had that choice. BTW, for high paying jobs in software, WSJ has Harvard #3 overall after Stanford and Princeton. UMD is not in the top 20 among public universities. |
Interesting that W&M has nearly as many Economics faculty as UMD despite being much smaller. |
Looks like UMD has 800 econ majors. WM 400. Guess a class of 15 at WM, would have 30 at UMD. https://www.econ.umd.edu/landingtopic/people#:~:text=With%20over%2030%20faculty%2C%20more,the%20largest%20departments%20on%20campus. https://www.wm.edu/as/economics/undergraduate/major/#:~:text=Each%20year%2C%20about%20400%20students%20at%20W%26M%20are%20economics%20majors. |