Harvard grads earn $81,500 at age 34 – WTF?!

[Anonymous]

You don’t get how many people at Harvard and similar schools have loads of family money and do not need to maximize earnings to support their lifestyle.

— Harvard grad with tons of Harvard friends, many of whom way under-earn because of family money and/or because they married a fellow Harvard grad who is a high earner

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of Ivy League students come from relatively wealthy families, which means they’re able to take on meaningful work with lower salaries. Or they’ve learned that money isn’t the only measure of success!

Def not a lot are relatively wealthy. Most are first generation kids I'm betting

You would so lose that bet!

I am dying- so out of touch to think that most Harvard slums are first Gen kids! Hahahahahhaha.

[Anonymous]

It’s hardly shocking that an Ivy League degree doesn’t mean what it did at some point. In my 20+ year career, it’s not meant much more than a degree from anywhere else for most fields of study.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of Ivy League students come from relatively wealthy families, which means they’re able to take on meaningful work with lower salaries. Or they’ve learned that money isn’t the only measure of success!

Def not a lot are relatively wealthy. Most are first generation kids I'm betting

I went to Princeton. At 35 I made a little less than that because when i graduated from college $50k seemed liked a kings ransom. This was 2006.

Lots of first GEN Ivy League have no idea how to negotiate or even want to negotiate towards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of Ivy League students come from relatively wealthy families, which means they’re able to take on meaningful work with lower salaries. Or they’ve learned that money isn’t the only measure of success!

Def not a lot are relatively wealthy. Most are first generation kids I'm betting

I went to Princeton. At 35 I made a little less than that because when i graduated from college $50k seemed liked a kings ransom. This was 2006.

Lots of first GEN Ivy League have no idea how to negotiate or even want to negotiate towards.

And I wasn’t first GEN college, but my parents were from A small public university in a rural state, and we lived in the country, so in someways our understanding of the value of things was worse than someone who had immigrated to New York City and at least understood urban rents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am not sure how reliable this data is. Salary also depends on the major. For example, Brown CS graduates have the highest salary at $141,100 (data from US department of education).

https://www.collegefactual.com/majors/computer-information-sciences/computer-science/rankings/highest-paid-grads/

CS grads are also one of the least likely majors to go back for graduate degrees because they aren't seen as necessary. Not averaging in grad students with no income will help averages for sure.

[Anonymous]

My child is a medical school resident making $65,000 per year. He could be dragging down the average.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child is a medical school resident making $65,000 per year. He could be dragging down the average.

Classic humble brag. Is he 34 old resident??

[Anonymous]

The gender info is a useless datapoint without a breakdown of who chose what degree. Real gender gap data needs to compare within a degree program, not within a university otherwise you compare men with Econ degrees and women with Gender Studies or Sociology.

[Anonymous]

My DC will be dragging down those stats when he graduates. Not everyone at an Ivy wants to be in Finance, CS, Law or Medicine.

Many people want to teach or work for non-profits or go into social work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not sure how reliable this data is. Salary also depends on the major. For example, Brown CS graduates have the highest salary at $141,100 (data from US department of education).

https://www.collegefactual.com/majors/computer-information-sciences/computer-science/rankings/highest-paid-grads/

CS grads are also one of the least likely majors to go back for graduate degrees because they aren't seen as necessary. Not averaging in grad students with no income will help averages for sure.

This is very true. A CS Masters is only really useful if the undergrad was in something else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of Ivy League students come from relatively wealthy families, which means they’re able to take on meaningful work with lower salaries. Or they’ve learned that money isn’t the only measure of success!

Brown alumna here and ITA. I was there 20+ years ago and the amount of $ people had was obscene. A regular, working class DCUM poster from a MC family cannot grasp this idea. I know "regular" people (not Middle Eastern royalty, Tisch fortunes) that have not worked in major money-making roles for at least 3 generations. Our friend's parents owned a neighborhood restaurant, my friend/classmate works in public health, and she bought her daughter a 2.6MM starter home in LA after graduation. My classmate's wedding was at her 50MM summer "house" in East Hampton.
I said it before, but for social mobility, the best school is CalTech. Don't go to an Ivy undergrad if you are poor and want to make $.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child is a medical school resident making $65,000 per year. He could be dragging down the average.

Classic humble brag. Is he 34 old resident??

Oops, sorry, I didn’t see the age. BTW, my DS is 30 and ends his residency in one month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child is a medical school resident making $65,000 per year. He could be dragging down the average.

Classic humble brag. Is he 34 old resident??

Oops, sorry, I didn’t see the age. BTW, my DS is 30 and ends his residency in one month.

And by 34 he will likely make over $200k and up

[Anonymous]

I’m not surprised by this, based on my experience at Columbia. Of my closest group of girlfriends, I’m the only one who has spent the last 15 years since graduation really working. Everyone else has a combination of family money, a wealthy spouse (with or without family money), or low paid passion projects. They’ve been SAHMs for the early childhood years and are just starting to get back into the job market now that their kids are going into elementary school. (So at 34, they would have been unpaid parents, bringing down the average.) Earning a salary to truly support themselves or their family has never been necessary or the goal.

Incidentally, I’m the only one from a low income background. No one is going to support me or my family but me. I outearn my husband (though he earns good money and makes above average for Brown, his alma matter). And although his family is rich, they’re the millionaire next door type of rich - a couple million in retirement savings because of their deep work ethic coupled with a lifetime of frugality. They are able to help in a pinch, but could not offer substantial, long term support if we weren’t self supporting.