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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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!

+1

They work at NPR and will inherit millions.

Sincerely,
Their state school coworker

If NPR wants to live their values, offset increasing inequality and support social mobility, they should hire state school graduates who are qualified and come from honors and academic scholarship programs. This is what my organization does. NPR staff should be advocating for this along with their EDI initiatives, unless it makes them too uncomfortable given their own backgrounds.

Most of those graduates cannot survive on the salary at NPR. Target pays better for entry level.

+1 seriously PP, do you not understand that plenty of very bright state school grads would love to work at NPR or at an art gallery, but they can't afford to? Whereas kids from rich families can work a nonprofit job and still inherit millions; their low-paying but "meaningful" career path has no financial relevancy in their lives, and their kids will be attending summer camp, getting dental work, traveling to europe, etc etc., no matter what. That's not true for middle class people.

Plenty of us not rich people can and do afford to have NPR type-jobs. I am married to a journalist and am in public health. We have no wealthy family, and we've paid back our grad school loans with our salaries. What you are missing is you can't become wealthy working at NPR (or its like) if you don't start out wealthy. But if you decide to live within your means it all works out fine. It is pretty weird to say you can't survive on a salary that is solidly middle class. Maybe you can't, but those of us who grew up middle class and have no expectation of being wealthy sure can.

How did you buy a house on your income?

1200 sq ft cape cod in PG county. Neighborhood is safe but solidly middle class, and not DCUM middle class. House next door is for sale for $375k. This is what I mean by living within your means. A journalist and public health professional can’t buy a $800k house, but we can buy a house. My neighbors are city employees, carpenters, EMTs, teachers. They buy houses, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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!

+1

They work at NPR and will inherit millions.

Sincerely,
Their state school coworker

If NPR wants to live their values, offset increasing inequality and support social mobility, they should hire state school graduates who are qualified and come from honors and academic scholarship programs. This is what my organization does. NPR staff should be advocating for this along with their EDI initiatives, unless it makes them too uncomfortable given their own backgrounds.

Most of those graduates cannot survive on the salary at NPR. Target pays better for entry level.

+1 seriously PP, do you not understand that plenty of very bright state school grads would love to work at NPR or at an art gallery, but they can't afford to? Whereas kids from rich families can work a nonprofit job and still inherit millions; their low-paying but "meaningful" career path has no financial relevancy in their lives, and their kids will be attending summer camp, getting dental work, traveling to europe, etc etc., no matter what. That's not true for middle class people.

Plenty of us not rich people can and do afford to have NPR type-jobs. I am married to a journalist and am in public health. We have no wealthy family, and we've paid back our grad school loans with our salaries. What you are missing is you can't become wealthy working at NPR (or its like) if you don't start out wealthy. But if you decide to live within your means it all works out fine. It is pretty weird to say you can't survive on a salary that is solidly middle class. Maybe you can't, but those of us who grew up middle class and have no expectation of being wealthy sure can.

How did you buy a house on your income?

1200 sq ft cape cod in PG county. Neighborhood is safe but solidly middle class, and not DCUM middle class. House next door is for sale for $375k. This is what I mean by living within your means. A journalist and public health professional can’t buy a $800k house, but we can buy a house. My neighbors are city employees, carpenters, EMTs, teachers. They buy houses, too.

Yup. 1500 sq ft rowhouse at the end of a MARC line here. My neighbors are PAs, social workers, librarians, managers in hospitality, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How is it that low? Here’s a link to the study:

https://www.topuniversities.com/where-to-study/north-america/united-states/penn-graduates-are-highest-earners-ivy-league

Some other takeaways:

1. UPenn graduates earn the most ($91,800/year at age 34), while Brown graduates earn the least ($66,900 at the same age).

2. The gender gap still exists, with males earning $110,200 and females $76,400 (I believe this is for UPenn, but the article is not very clear on this).

3. The article was from 2017 but says it was last updated in March 2021. So it’s possible those were the salaries in 2017, but even then, I would’ve thought they would be higher.

What do you think? Maybe we in the DC area have an unrealistic idea of salaries nationwide, but I was still surprised to read that graduates of the most prestigious university in the country can only muster a salary of $81,500 more than a decade after graduation.

Makes me feel better about my public flag ship engineering degree. I was making $120k before I turned 35. Never had any interest in the ivies (always seemed too WASPy and kid who weren’t seemed like projects for schools to brag about helping).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How is it that low? Here’s a link to the study:

https://www.topuniversities.com/where-to-study/north-america/united-states/penn-graduates-are-highest-earners-ivy-league

Some other takeaways:

1. UPenn graduates earn the most ($91,800/year at age 34), while Brown graduates earn the least ($66,900 at the same age).

2. The gender gap still exists, with males earning $110,200 and females $76,400 (I believe this is for UPenn, but the article is not very clear on this).

3. The article was from 2017 but says it was last updated in March 2021. So it’s possible those were the salaries in 2017, but even then, I would’ve thought they would be higher.

What do you think? Maybe we in the DC area have an unrealistic idea of salaries nationwide, but I was still surprised to read that graduates of the most prestigious university in the country can only muster a salary of $81,500 more than a decade after graduation.

Makes me feel better about my public flag ship engineering degree. I was making $120k before I turned 35. Never had any interest in the ivies (always seemed too WASPy and kid who weren’t seemed like projects for schools to brag about helping).

PP explains why most tech careers die in a basement somewhere. I'm saying this as an applied math major with English as a 3rd language. My Ivy was savage and wouldn't let us graduate without a basic number of humanities classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Virginia Tech graduates bring in an average salary of $91,500 by that age. Just looked it up online. The average starting salary for a new VT grad is around $74,000. With a lot lower student debt.

So the average VT new 22 year old makes 74k. But their 12-year older peer is at 91.5k.

17.5k for 12 years of experience….kind of sucks when you think about it like that. Not many people make it to even a Manager level I guess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How is it that low? Here’s a link to the study:

https://www.topuniversities.com/where-to-study/north-america/united-states/penn-graduates-are-highest-earners-ivy-league

Some other takeaways:

1. UPenn graduates earn the most ($91,800/year at age 34), while Brown graduates earn the least ($66,900 at the same age).

2. The gender gap still exists, with males earning $110,200 and females $76,400 (I believe this is for UPenn, but the article is not very clear on this).

3. The article was from 2017 but says it was last updated in March 2021. So it’s possible those were the salaries in 2017, but even then, I would’ve thought they would be higher.

What do you think? Maybe we in the DC area have an unrealistic idea of salaries nationwide, but I was still surprised to read that graduates of the most prestigious university in the country can only muster a salary of $81,500 more than a decade after graduation.

"Average" would include non-working trust fund kids with no salary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I suspect there may be a chunk in grad school or SAH with kids, with zero income, pulling down the average.

Public service is popular. Obama was probably earning in that range at 34. Those jobs don't necessarily pay well.

Yes. I'm looking at my Brown class and so many went into public service or top law schools reaching for judgeship. As a foreigner, it's amazing to me. The very wealthy families can afford to send their offspring to work in power positions that shape the future of this country. It's a self-serving mechanism that keeps the poor and unconnected from gaining decision-making power. Do you think all these people working on the Hill and buying the million $ housing are doing it from a staffer salary? Meanwhile, the poor are busy working their butts off to get a well paid job and accumulate some wealth while the elite is deciding almost everything.

I'm shocked this is "amazing" to you. Where are you from where this isn't the case?

Europe. Of course it's amazing to me, don't you advertise yourself as the land of opportunity, equality, pull oneself up by one's bootstraps and various other c*ap? At least we're honest about the privilege.

I guess you haven’t lived here long enough to understand that advertise as the land of opportunity is propaganda to keep taxes low, minimum social safety net, and low investment in education. In our imagined scenario, if you are poor it’s because you made bad choices, because everyone has the opportunity to succeed, you know. Why should taxpayers fund people who don’t even choose to improve themselves, they obviously had a chance. And so on.

“Land of opportunity” and “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” doesn’t mean “Everyone in America gets to go to Harvard and become President.” My poor immigrant parents worked their tails off and have a great grand daughter who did go to Harvard and is a “decision maker.” My husband’s grand parents fled a worn torn country and would be amazed by his “status” and “wealth” (which is nothing by DCUM standards). There IS opportunity in America. That doesn’t mean everyone gets the same opportunities, or that it can’t improve, or that it will happen in one generation, but it’s the best we’ve got and better than any other country.

Hey we aren’t the worst, we beat Spain and Italy. You sure drank the kool aid.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Social_Mobility_Index

But we pretend we are better so we can lay the blame for poverty in the poor and shrink social safety nets

Ha! The World Economic Forum? Forgive me if I don’t drink Klaus Schwab’s Kool Aid. Denmark is # 1? How many immigrants does Denmark accept per year? Any idea? Can you name one university in Denmark? Other than the University of Copenhagen? People aren’t trying to risk their lives to get across the border to Denmark. People all over the world know Harvard and MIT and try to go to other US schools for undergrad and grad schools. Denmark? Not sure if anyone outside of Europe can name a school there. And universities in Denmark only accept citizens, unlike the US. America is still the land of opportunity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I suspect there may be a chunk in grad school or SAH with kids, with zero income, pulling down the average.

Public service is popular. Obama was probably earning in that range at 34. Those jobs don't necessarily pay well.

Yes. I'm looking at my Brown class and so many went into public service or top law schools reaching for judgeship. As a foreigner, it's amazing to me. The very wealthy families can afford to send their offspring to work in power positions that shape the future of this country. It's a self-serving mechanism that keeps the poor and unconnected from gaining decision-making power. Do you think all these people working on the Hill and buying the million $ housing are doing it from a staffer salary? Meanwhile, the poor are busy working their butts off to get a well paid job and accumulate some wealth while the elite is deciding almost everything.

I'm shocked this is "amazing" to you. Where are you from where this isn't the case?

Europe. Of course it's amazing to me, don't you advertise yourself as the land of opportunity, equality, pull oneself up by one's bootstraps and various other c*ap? At least we're honest about the privilege.

I guess you haven’t lived here long enough to understand that advertise as the land of opportunity is propaganda to keep taxes low, minimum social safety net, and low investment in education. In our imagined scenario, if you are poor it’s because you made bad choices, because everyone has the opportunity to succeed, you know. Why should taxpayers fund people who don’t even choose to improve themselves, they obviously had a chance. And so on.

“Land of opportunity” and “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” doesn’t mean “Everyone in America gets to go to Harvard and become President.” My poor immigrant parents worked their tails off and have a great grand daughter who did go to Harvard and is a “decision maker.” My husband’s grand parents fled a worn torn country and would be amazed by his “status” and “wealth” (which is nothing by DCUM standards). There IS opportunity in America. That doesn’t mean everyone gets the same opportunities, or that it can’t improve, or that it will happen in one generation, but it’s the best we’ve got and better than any other country.

Hey we aren’t the worst, we beat Spain and Italy. You sure drank the kool aid.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Social_Mobility_Index

But we pretend we are better so we can lay the blame for poverty in the poor and shrink social safety nets

Ha! The World Economic Forum? Forgive me if I don’t drink Klaus Schwab’s Kool Aid. Denmark is # 1? How many immigrants does Denmark accept per year? Any idea? Can you name one university in Denmark? Other than the University of Copenhagen? People aren’t trying to risk their lives to get across the border to Denmark. People all over the world know Harvard and MIT and try to go to other US schools for undergrad and grad schools. Denmark? Not sure if anyone outside of Europe can name a school there. And universities in Denmark only accept citizens, unlike the US. America is still the land of opportunity.

But they have better lives. They live longer too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How is it that low? Here’s a link to the study:

https://www.topuniversities.com/where-to-study/north-america/united-states/penn-graduates-are-highest-earners-ivy-league

Some other takeaways:

1. UPenn graduates earn the most ($91,800/year at age 34), while Brown graduates earn the least ($66,900 at the same age).

2. The gender gap still exists, with males earning $110,200 and females $76,400 (I believe this is for UPenn, but the article is not very clear on this).

3. The article was from 2017 but says it was last updated in March 2021. So it’s possible those were the salaries in 2017, but even then, I would’ve thought they would be higher.

What do you think? Maybe we in the DC area have an unrealistic idea of salaries nationwide, but I was still surprised to read that graduates of the most prestigious university in the country can only muster a salary of $81,500 more than a decade after graduation.

Makes me feel better about my public flag ship engineering degree. I was making $120k before I turned 35. Never had any interest in the ivies (always seemed too WASPy and kid who weren’t seemed like projects for schools to brag about helping).

PP explains why most tech careers die in a basement somewhere. I'm saying this as an applied math major with English as a 3rd language. My Ivy was savage and wouldn't let us graduate without a basic number of humanities classes.

Um, I took humanities classes, including two Central European languages, one of which I studied abroad. All I’m saying is that public flagship grads can fair as well as those that graduate from blue-blood schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to Yale UG and Harvard PG.

Here’s what you’re missing:

1. Wealthiest people I went to school with either don’t work or they work vanity jobs, like setting up a nonprofit, something in arts, media, etc. Little or no “income”, which is for poor people.

2. Others of the wealthiest people I know are in PE, real estate, partnerships, etc. Again, little or no “income”, which is for poor people.

3. Those in academics, research, medicine, and sometimes law are just short of crossing the threshold to actual money at 34.

4. Plenty of HYPS grads, even if they’re not from Uber wealthy backgrounds like those above, have parents who are doctors and lawyers or whatever and are perfectly comfortable, plus expect to inherent well into 7 figures. So they’re fine choosing “meaningful” work that pays less: they work in museums, or at foundations, or in journalism. They sail around the world on a solar powered boat and make a documentary about.

5. Ironically, it is the poorest of the group—the strivers, first generation college kids, etc.—who bolster those “income” numbers. They are busting their asses in finance, law, consulting because they don’t have the wealth to fall back on. They are generating it to move their kids into one of the above groups.

The US would be far more equitable if regular people could be made to understand that income is for suckers. Income tax fights and other income-based comparisons pit the poor against the MC against the UMC. It all missed the point about the tiny band at the top that doesn’t care about income.

This is it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Virginia Tech graduates bring in an average salary of $91,500 by that age. Just looked it up online. The average starting salary for a new VT grad is around $74,000. With a lot lower student debt.

So the average VT new 22 year old makes 74k. But their 12-year older peer is at 91.5k.

17.5k for 12 years of experience….kind of sucks when you think about it like that. Not many people make it to even a Manager level I guess.

I wonder how much salary compression is part of this though. Plus your average 34 year old graduated in 2009, not 2022. Pretty sure the average salary then was not 74k for a new grad then. Maybe this is what they mean when they say graduates into a recession pay the price in salary for life.

[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

Lol no way. The vast majority were the children of two professionals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How is it that low? Here’s a link to the study:

https://www.topuniversities.com/where-to-study/north-america/united-states/penn-graduates-are-highest-earners-ivy-league

Some other takeaways:

1. UPenn graduates earn the most ($91,800/year at age 34), while Brown graduates earn the least ($66,900 at the same age).

2. The gender gap still exists, with males earning $110,200 and females $76,400 (I believe this is for UPenn, but the article is not very clear on this).

3. The article was from 2017 but says it was last updated in March 2021. So it’s possible those were the salaries in 2017, but even then, I would’ve thought they would be higher.

What do you think? Maybe we in the DC area have an unrealistic idea of salaries nationwide, but I was still surprised to read that graduates of the most prestigious university in the country can only muster a salary of $81,500 more than a decade after graduation.

"Average" would include non-working trust fund kids with no salary.

Yep—It also includes who are pursuing second incomes or passion careers. My sibling went to hyp and earns probably 80k in academia but the spouse is a big law partner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How is it that low? Here’s a link to the study:

https://www.topuniversities.com/where-to-study/north-america/united-states/penn-graduates-are-highest-earners-ivy-league

Some other takeaways:

1. UPenn graduates earn the most ($91,800/year at age 34), while Brown graduates earn the least ($66,900 at the same age).

2. The gender gap still exists, with males earning $110,200 and females $76,400 (I believe this is for UPenn, but the article is not very clear on this).

3. The article was from 2017 but says it was last updated in March 2021. So it’s possible those were the salaries in 2017, but even then, I would’ve thought they would be higher.

What do you think? Maybe we in the DC area have an unrealistic idea of salaries nationwide, but I was still surprised to read that graduates of the most prestigious university in the country can only muster a salary of $81,500 more than a decade after graduation.

Makes me feel better about my public flag ship engineering degree. I was making $120k before I turned 35. Never had any interest in the ivies (always seemed too WASPy and kid who weren’t seemed like projects for schools to brag about helping).

PP explains why most tech careers die in a basement somewhere. I'm saying this as an applied math major with English as a 3rd language. My Ivy was savage and wouldn't let us graduate without a basic number of humanities classes.

Um, I took humanities classes, including two Central European languages, one of which I studied abroad. All I’m saying is that public flagship grads can fair as well as those that graduate from blue-blood schools.

You’re certainly “fairing” well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Virginia Tech graduates bring in an average salary of $91,500 by that age. Just looked it up online. The average starting salary for a new VT grad is around $74,000. With a lot lower student debt.

So the average VT new 22 year old makes 74k. But their 12-year older peer is at 91.5k.

17.5k for 12 years of experience….kind of sucks when you think about it like that. Not many people make it to even a Manager level I guess.

I wonder how much salary compression is part of this though. Plus your average 34 year old graduated in 2009, not 2022. Pretty sure the average salary then was not 74k for a new grad then. Maybe this is what they mean when they say graduates into a recession pay the price in salary for life.

It's true for any career. Look it's relatively easy to hit 100k 150k in HCOL but after that there really aren't that many spots in management to go around and get much above those thresholds. Most people will struggle to break 150k 200k HCOL regardless of what DCUM tells you.