(Slightly OT?) A UM bachelor’s degree yields 22% more in wages than U.S. median, according to national study.
For the record, I'm not a Michigan grad (just a lifelong sports fan who grew up near Ann Arbor), however I thought this was a really interesting study.
Lots of interesting takeaways in the article, including a database you can explore, but some of the more interesting tidbits IMO:
- The median salary for UM bachelor’s grads five years after graduation is $61,099.The US median for that category is $50,000 (in 2016)
- Ten years after graduation, the median income of UM graduates rises to more than $85,000
- Engineering physics and business administration graduates from UM saw the highest payoffs after five years, at $116,679 and $92,549, respectively.
- Neurobiology and neurosciences degrees yielded considerably less, at $30,584
- School of Kinesiology (the program most football players are enrolled in), career earnings wildly vary from less than $20,000 to more than $100,000
- The average salary for two of the school’s biggest programs - movement science and sports management - is between $40,000 and $45,000
I'm curious how that could play into recruiting.
Link:
https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2019/11/how-much-is-a-university-of-michigan-degree-worth.html
November 6th, 2019 at 10:07 PM ^
Actual Michigan graduates are not so bad.
College football message board posers, on the other hand...
November 6th, 2019 at 4:31 PM ^
If only the cost was 22% more than the national median.
November 6th, 2019 at 4:54 PM ^
Having the Michigan name on your diploma definitely helps, but at the end of the day, what you study matters exponentially more than where you study. Unless you're at one of the Ivies, Stanford, or MIT.
But a guy with a history major from Michigan probably isn't going to be earning more five years out from graduation than a guy who studied Business Administration at, say, Florida or Florida State. One degree is considerably more marketable and translatable with real-world skills than the other is.
November 6th, 2019 at 6:22 PM ^
UM history degree will get you into top flight law schools, though.
November 6th, 2019 at 9:19 PM ^
I get that you qualified it with "probably," but I think I still have to disagree; if you major in a liberal arts type degree, you just need to have a specific plan. Obviously, you need an engineering/math degree to become an engineer, but beyond that, for professions that only require a bachelor's degree, your internships are what matter, and for prestigious internships (which parlay into prestigious jobs) a brand name random major is just as valuable as a relevant major from XYZ State U. But the biggest factor is your ability to do the job and interview. I've hired Liberal Arts majors from Michigan, as well as Grads from smaller/no name colleges.
Source: Psych major making 6 figures in advertising 3 years out of college, with a college buddy that is a Poli Sci major working for a top Wall St firm you've heard of; and another co-worker who is one of the smartest person I've ever met, making a similar salary as me whose highest level of education is an Associates Degree from a For-Profit Community College.
November 6th, 2019 at 5:49 PM ^
Stats are fun to play with.
November 6th, 2019 at 6:23 PM ^
If you love tech and just want to make $$, skip the 4 year college and go to Coding Bootcamp.
I have a UM BSE Engineering Science and, besides working continuously during school, I was $50k in debt in today's $ when I graduated. It worked out well for me, and I was able to a pay off my debt and then save\invest enough to retire after 22 years, but knowing what I know now I would have jumped at Coding Bootcamp if it were available then.
November 6th, 2019 at 7:23 PM ^
Art school grad here. Doing ok too!
November 6th, 2019 at 7:33 PM ^
Here's the thing--recruiters like to hire people from their own school.
I got my first job almost exclusively because the recruiter was from U of M and convinced her company to let her do a jobfair a Michigan and collect resumes. That job was for a big, well-known company and set me up for my entire career.
So, I don't know that the Michigan education got me more money, but the Michigan connections surely did.
November 6th, 2019 at 7:53 PM ^
Chicken or egg?
Does a UM bachelors lead to 22% more because UM is more selective in admissions?
November 6th, 2019 at 8:11 PM ^
While Michigan does get the nations top applicants, they still got to put in the work once they get there. Lots of kids are only good at studying, but have no clue how to do anything else that might help them get a job. That might be fine in some STEM fields, but not for degrees in lesser demand fields.
I know a shit ton of really really smart kids growing up who aren't doing much today because instead of pursuing internships and/or relevant experiences, they spent all their time studying for meaningless tests.
November 6th, 2019 at 9:28 PM ^
I agree with this, for the kids you mention - who don't know how to pursue internships/research/experience/don't-have-a-plan-long-term are far better off studying engineering or business, or studying for the MCAT/LSAT etc where there is a pretty clear-cut career path.
At the risk of sounding harsh, the only useless degree is a degree (of any major) held by a useless person
November 6th, 2019 at 9:26 PM ^
My undergrad had good academics but wasn’t well know - my opportunities were average.
In grad school I went to the best brand name school I could get accepted to, cost be damned. The opportunities have made that investment well worth it. My career has been in consulting, where credibility is important.
November 6th, 2019 at 9:29 PM ^
Meh. One can only enjoy so much caviar.
November 6th, 2019 at 11:44 PM ^
What matters is whether the degree gets you into the door at the top of a profession. We're increasingly living in a bimodal world.For example, Wall Street / MNCs for business / economics majors, MNCs / hot starts ups for STEM majors, large law firms for lawyers, ranked hospitals for doctors, and Big Four for accountants.
If you get into the door, you will generally have good options (through the skills you develop at those platforms and the connections you make) for the rest of your career. After your first job, where you went to school will not matter all that much (what matters is where you started professionally). If you do not get into the door, then it's an uphill climb and the Michigan degree really isn't all that different from a Rutgers degree.
A good example is the bimodal distribution of outcomes for lawyers. Those who get into the large law firms start strong in terms of compensation and this continues for their careers. Those who cannot get into those platforms start low in terms of compensation and generally never recover. This is evidenced by data from NALP.
What's needed is more transparency on where graduates start. Michigan is a good school (a kind of in between of Rutgers and Princeton) but not everyone makes it and that needs to be disclosed for admitted students weighing the costs.
Not sure what the situation is like now, but 15 years ago when I attended UM it was generally understood among my circle of UM friends that half of BBA graduates could not get into Wall Street firms / MNCs, half of engineering graduates could not get into MNCs / hot start-ups, 75% of graduates who aspired to med school couldn't get into one, and 75% of graduates who aspired to law school could not get into a top school (the primary feeders for large law firm jobs). The entry standards have gone up, so those numbers may be better now. But it's still a far cry from the virtual guaranteed outcomes (if you want it) at a place like Princeton, where graduates of the "Woodrow Wilson School" with no quant. skills whatsoever are routinely recruited by top firms as if they were MIT grads!