OT--Government Released College Statistics (Yet Another Reason to Choose UM over MSU, OSU)

Submitted by gremlin on

Average salary ten years after attending UM: USD 57,900.

Average salary ten years after attending MSU: USD 49,800.

Average salary ten years after attending OSU: USD 42,600.

 

https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/search/?state=MI&sort=advantage:desc

https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/search/?state=OH&name=ohio%20state&sort…

SpikeFan2016

September 13th, 2015 at 11:02 PM ^

It's 6 years post grad, on average. 10 years after enrollment.

 

These numbers are actually understated compared to some other schools because they only include students who have been receiving federal financial aid (so probably at least about 40% of UM graduates would not be included) and they don't take into account that more prestigious schools like Michigan send a higher proportion of schools to PHD and other grad programs that don't have their salaries reflected six years after graduation. 

 

 

BornSinner

September 14th, 2015 at 5:02 AM ^

Yeah... didn't wanna sound like a buzzkill but schools that Michigan should be compared to (ie the Ivy League/UCLA/UVA/Berk) kill us in this government survey lol... 

 

I'm assuming that is due to class size and the fact that Michigan has a lot more lower earning majors due to said size than the other top tier schools do causing the skew. 

Optimism Attache

September 14th, 2015 at 7:42 AM ^

Another factor is cost of living. Many Michigan grads stay in Michigan or the Midwest. The same job pays less in Michigan than it does in urban New England or the Bay Area, where some of those schools are. I imagine lots of UVA grads end up in D.C., also a very pricy locale.

TrueBlue2003

September 14th, 2015 at 4:24 PM ^

Ivy league schools are much smaller, much more expensive private schools so comparing average data on them to UM is useless and not even remotely apples to apples.

Our closest peer group, some of whom you supposedly looked up, includes UC-Berkeley (62k), UCLA (58k), UVA (58k) and UNC (50k) and those schools do not at all kill us (57k). If one included relative salaries by markets in which graduates choose to live, I would bet the COLA adjusted avg salary for UM would top this group.

unWavering

September 13th, 2015 at 9:30 PM ^

I feel like this data isn't all that useful unless you break it out by major.  For instance, I know for a fact that the College of Engineering at UM is much bigger than at MSU.  Engineers typically have higher salaries than other majors, so this could tend to skew the data because of that.

What would be interesting to see, is whether or not engineering grads from UM make more than engineering grads from MSU and OSU, etc.

youn2948

September 13th, 2015 at 11:39 PM ^

The other reason is that in order to graduate, you're required years of work experience. Also almost everyone has a job lined up with their co-op company. My company then counted my co-op time over 5 years as 5 years experience and hooked me up right out of college.

Not an engineer.

m1jjb00

September 13th, 2015 at 10:10 PM ^

What you're really interested in is the value added.  The problem is that students aren't randomly distributed among the schools.  So, you want to control for that, not only by major, but quality of student going in, etc.

Then again, that's not necessarily the only reason to prefer one school over another.

Hail-Storm

September 14th, 2015 at 9:21 AM ^

Starting engineers rarely have much to go on, outside of an internship and a grade point. This doesn't make much of a spread for companies to go on.  I could be wrong, but I don't think that there is a huge disparity in starting salary from engineering school to engineering school. 

As others have said, this information doesn't mean much, as school populations with large doctorate students get hurt, and engineering schools benefit a lot. To make this relevant it really needs to be by major and by location or a percentage against the median for the area. It also needs to span probably 10, 15, and 20 years.

Either way, I know plenty of Michigan and MSU people that make way more than me.  

The Mad Hatter

September 14th, 2015 at 8:31 AM ^

But that matters less when the person getting the degree has a substantial resume already.  I knew a VP at my company that finished up his degree there because HR was refusing his promotion to SVP w/o an undergrad degree.  He was already qualified for the SVP promotion, just didn't have the degree.

I don't think anyone goes to UOP straight out of high school.

SpikeFan2016

September 13th, 2015 at 11:05 PM ^

This also only includes students on federal financial aid who (although this is unfortunate/not ideal) still tend to make less than students from well off backgrounds after college (due to many reasons). 

 

All U of M students would probably have a salary of a few thousand higher and it's 6 years out, not 10 

gwkrlghl

September 13th, 2015 at 9:38 PM ^

I dunno...all of those numbers seem fairly low for 10 years out. I mean, a good chunk of Michigan's grads are engineers and they generally start at or above $58k right now