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

Anonymous
This does not surprise me. I've known one Princeton grad who worked at an SAT tutoring center. I've known a University of Chicago grad who worked as an administrative assistant in a job one could have done with a two year community college degree. Then my sister ended up joining the Marines with her University of Pennsylvania Wharton Business School degree because the best job she could find was selling bikes at a bike store in Philadelphia.
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.


The 91.5K salary from VT, is that for a CS major?  There are so many recent grads from GMU and VT working for my employer that are making over 120K.  Recent grads will not even respond to emails for anything less than 100K.
Anonymous
UMD IT graduates - daughters classmates, are making anywhere from 63k to 92k locally. Pretty good starting salaries for young adults.
Anonymous
Has anyone figured out the veracity of this data? It sounds like the website is really just one guy and I didn't see anything about sample size or whether he got a fair distribution of graduates.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Has anyone figured out the veracity of this data? It sounds like the website is really just one guy and I didn't see anything about sample size or whether he got a fair distribution of graduates.


The reason people don't want to believe this, on DCUM, is

A. Most of them have no affiliation or connection to ivies in any way
B. They are living in a fantasy land about what ivies are - all rich kids and kids of senators and crap like that
C. All they know about the ivies are things they've seen in movies or read on this stupid board

Do you realize that thousands and thousands of kids go to ivies every year? I have both an undergrad and grad degree from ivy league schools. There are TONS of stupid kids in the ivy league. And no, they are not all rich. Admissions committees make all kinds of errors and weigh all kinds of factors in admissions. A girl I sat next to in cognitive psychology could barely talk (I am not kidding) - probably had severe mental health problems. The girl on the other side of me in the same class was a blonde ditsy airhead. I know that sounds like an exaggeration but I swear it's not. There is not a deep enough bench of ultra rich families and "senators" (lmao) to fill ivy league classes. Oh, and by the way, like half the majors at the schools have no career path whatsoever. Did you really think a Womens and Sexuality Studies major from Harvard is going out and making bank unlike the poor unfortunate Womens and Sexuality Studies majors at UMD? LOL. But then if you look at fields where knowledge and skills actually matter, like engineering, the salary differential is almost zero between any of the top 100 schools. So it should not be at all surprising that ivy league grads don't make significantly more than other grads. And it's NOT because they are from rich families! Ha. Hilarious delusions
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.


"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.


She got her MRS degree -- having an Ivy degree gave her the pedigree to attract the Big Law partner (assuming they didn't even meet there)
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.


"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.


She got her MRS degree -- having an Ivy degree gave her the pedigree to attract the Big Law partner (assuming they didn't even meet there)


Men don't care where a women went to school sweetie
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
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.


"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.


She got her MRS degree -- having an Ivy degree gave her the pedigree to attract the Big Law partner (assuming they didn't even meet there)


Men don't care where a women went to school sweetie


Men do care about where a woman went to school. Some of us want our kids to be smart and continue our legacy.
But looks and others factors (like how good she is in bed) may be as important or more important to most men.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Has anyone figured out the veracity of this data? It sounds like the website is really just one guy and I didn't see anything about sample size or whether he got a fair distribution of graduates.


The reason people don't want to believe this, on DCUM, is

A. Most of them have no affiliation or connection to ivies in any way
B. They are living in a fantasy land about what ivies are - all rich kids and kids of senators and crap like that
C. All they know about the ivies are things they've seen in movies or read on this stupid board

Do you realize that thousands and thousands of kids go to ivies every year? I have both an undergrad and grad degree from ivy league schools. There are TONS of stupid kids in the ivy league. And no, they are not all rich. Admissions committees make all kinds of errors and weigh all kinds of factors in admissions. A girl I sat next to in cognitive psychology could barely talk (I am not kidding) - probably had severe mental health problems. The girl on the other side of me in the same class was a blonde ditsy airhead. I know that sounds like an exaggeration but I swear it's not. There is not a deep enough bench of ultra rich families and "senators" (lmao) to fill ivy league classes. Oh, and by the way, like half the majors at the schools have no career path whatsoever. Did you really think a Womens and Sexuality Studies major from Harvard is going out and making bank unlike the poor unfortunate Womens and Sexuality Studies majors at UMD? LOL. But then if you look at fields where knowledge and skills actually matter, like engineering, the salary differential is almost zero between any of the top 100 schools. So it should not be at all surprising that ivy league grads don't make significantly more than other grads. And it's NOT because they are from rich families! Ha. Hilarious delusions


Exactly. Compensation at most companies and organizations are tiered by experience on the job. They are set by HR and reviewed by legal. They don't pay you more because your college cost more, or because you have bigger loans, or because USNWR said your school is better than his school, or because your SAT score was higher 5 years ago. I doesn't work that way. There may be a few companies who want that ivy resume on their bio page (and they tend to be terrible snobby places to work), and so you may have a bit of a leg up in the initial interview process at some places, but that's it. The other place it sometimes helps is when you are at the C suite level and the company again wants that ivy bio to show off to investors. That's not a lot of people, and it is actually a small percentage execs anyway. And every college and fraternity and sorority has a network for getting jobs, and if you have a personal network, that works for you wherever you go.
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.


It is logically impossible for everyone to make it to manager level. Some companies have bloated middle management, but most are lean pyramids.
Anonymous
An English degree from Harvard is still just an English degree.

Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Has anyone figured out the veracity of this data? It sounds like the website is really just one guy and I didn't see anything about sample size or whether he got a fair distribution of graduates.


The reason people don't want to believe this, on DCUM, is

A. Most of them have no affiliation or connection to ivies in any way
B. They are living in a fantasy land about what ivies are - all rich kids and kids of senators and crap like that
C. All they know about the ivies are things they've seen in movies or read on this stupid board

Do you realize that thousands and thousands of kids go to ivies every year? I have both an undergrad and grad degree from ivy league schools. There are TONS of stupid kids in the ivy league. And no, they are not all rich. Admissions committees make all kinds of errors and weigh all kinds of factors in admissions. A girl I sat next to in cognitive psychology could barely talk (I am not kidding) - probably had severe mental health problems. The girl on the other side of me in the same class was a blonde ditsy airhead. I know that sounds like an exaggeration but I swear it's not. There is not a deep enough bench of ultra rich families and "senators" (lmao) to fill ivy league classes. Oh, and by the way, like half the majors at the schools have no career path whatsoever. Did you really think a Womens and Sexuality Studies major from Harvard is going out and making bank unlike the poor unfortunate Womens and Sexuality Studies majors at UMD? LOL. But then if you look at fields where knowledge and skills actually matter, like engineering, the salary differential is almost zero between any of the top 100 schools. So it should not be at all surprising that ivy league grads don't make significantly more than other grads. And it's NOT because they are from rich families! Ha. Hilarious delusions


Sheesh. I was just asking the question. Did I miss something in the article? Is there any meat in this click bait article? I don't see any links and the author is the mysterious "Craig O" who has a fuzzy headshot photo and is described as "Head of Content, Craig is responsible for all articles and guides published across TopUniversities and TopMBA. He has nearly 10 years of experience writing for a student audience and extensive knowledge of universities and study programs around the world."
It all seems a little thin.

All that said, it gets people's attention and brings out some strong emotions (7 pages so far). As a lowly, non-Ivy grad (only a BS!), I would be interested to see something deeper in the article.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
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.



Fatality.
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.


It is logically impossible for everyone to make it to manager level. Some companies have bloated middle management, but most are lean pyramids.


And companies with bloated titles and middle management typically don't pay that well. You could be an associate VP or something making 90k in a company with tons of people at this level and bloated titles.
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.


"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.


She got her MRS degree -- having an Ivy degree gave her the pedigree to attract the Big Law partner (assuming they didn't even meet there)


PP here...yes, they met at HYP.
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