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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This list is mostly selective private colleges so it isn't surprising that the students who attend them are the highest paid.

For public schools, the list is:

1. Georgia Tech
2. Berkeley
3. Colorado School of Mines
4. Michigan
5. UVA
6. Cal Poly SLO

[/quote]

The numbers are GREATLY skewed by choice of majors.  On average, engineering majors make 2X the average for a college graduate [b]during the early part[/b] of their career, which is the period when the income data is taken.  They are more likely to get high paying jobs right out of college and less likely to get advanced degrees, which can delay higher earnings.  This is what drives much of the ROI math.  If you simplify a hypothetical comparison to two schools College A and College B, and to two majors, ENGINEERING and EVERYTHING ELSE majors, you can see how important this is.  Assuming College A and College B graduates make the same amount in each respective major, if College A had 50% Engineering and 50% Everything Else majors and College B had 100% Everything Else majors, College A graduates on average would make 50% more on average than College B graduates.  If you attribute this to overall superiority of College A, it would be misleading.  A graduate of College A with a degree in Everything Else should have no expectation to earn more than a graduate of College B with a degree in Everything Else.  On average, they would earn the same.  The graduate of College A would have to major in Engineering to have higher earnings expectations.

The reason why Georgia Tech tops this list is because it has the highest percentage of engineering majors.  You should not assume that its non-engineering engineering majors earn more graduates of the other schools or that its engineering graduates earn more than the other schools.  In fact, Georgia Tech graduates could earn less than the other schools in all comparable majors but still top the list because the percentage of engineering majors is so high (this is a hypothetical statement - I am not claiming this is true).

The other major factor to consider is cost of living where graduates settle.  I won't go into the mathematical details here, but just consider that the cost of living in California is nearly 2X the national average and you can see how this impacts these studies.[/quote]

is 10 years considered early part? it should equalize by then, no? that's why GU which has no engineering is on the list[/quote]

Schools without engineering (or high pay vocation/professional specialty schools like pharmacy) must overperform in other majors.  Only a few schools without engineering/specialty are on this list.[/quote]

Isn't pharmacy a grad degree?[/quote]

I don't know about now but it went from being a 4 year degree to a 5 year PharmD to whatever it is now.  
[/quote]

There are bachelors degrees.  The ROI surveys reflect only bachelors degrees.  However, those may go on to earn Pharm.D. degrees.[/quote]

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