Reply to Why would you pay full freight to send your kid to Middlebury?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]A friend's child is majoring in classics and will probably go to grad school for something like computational linguistics. Believe it or not, people who write translation software actually benefit from knowing other languages, and knowing a lot about various issues with grammar, etc.  
As a poster upthread said, while some people believe you should major in pharmaceutical repping and become a pharmaceutical rep, there are actually many liberal arts majors that are useful background for going on in a vareity of fields.  For example, some people who now do intellectual property rights law actually majored in philosophy, where there is a lot of writing about ownership and how one claims ownership and what it means to own something, etc.  [/quote]

Yet the average salary is low $60’s for Middleburry alum over 10 years out. Many of which probably afforded and went on for a graduate degree too. So....[/quote]

You need to read the caveats to the data and understand what its measuring. Earnings data by college was release by Obama era Department of ED through the College Scorecard by cross-walking federal aid recipients with IRS data.  The reported "salary after attending" Middlebury College was $58,200.  Available here: https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/school/?230959-Middlebury-College

Please note data flag reads "The median earnings of former students who received federal financial aid, at 10 years after entering school."

So a number of things. First it excludes so-called "full freight" students who didnt get a Pell Grant or take out federal student loans, or whose parents took out a low-interest bank loan available to them bc of their good credit and family assets ie the data excludes wealthier students who probably went on to higher paying jobs due to their family connectiosn and wealth. 
Second, the reported figure is "median" not average. The average would likely be higher in this context because outlier high salary earners would skew it up where as outlier lower earnings students have a stopping point at zero. 
Last, and perhaps most important, it measures student earnings "10 years after entering," not 10 years after graduating. This figure is their salary at age 28.  I dont know aobut you but I attended an Ivy league college and my earnings at age 28 were around $50 - 60K and I was delighted.  The majority of people in the workforce dont start earning larger salaries until later in their career and people who pursue lengthy graduate programs typical of Middlebury students are likely not earning or earning fellowship $ at age 28.

I just dont think you can make broad assumptions about the success of Middlebury alums based on that stat.

[/quote]

Thank you! I am a Middlebury Grad who made $0 at age 28 because I was in grad school. As someone earlier said, many alums go into nonprofit fields and I think that speaks well of the school as it indicates that the graduates want to make the world a better place. That being said, there are plenty of Wall Streeters and law partners among th alumni. Most of the people chiming in here have no idea of what they are talking about.[/quote]

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