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Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 2,639
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Do Elite Colleges Lead to Higher Salaries? Only for Some ProfessionsBy ERIC R. EIDE and MICHAEL J. HILMER Wall Street Journal January 31, 2016 ...
Diplomas from prestigious schools boost future earnings only in certain fields, while in other fields they simply don’t make a difference.
Specifically, for business and other liberal-arts majors, the prestige of the school has a major impact on future earnings expectations. But for fields like science, technology, education and math, it largely doesn’t matter whether students go to a prestigious, expensive school or a low-priced one—expected earnings turn out the same. So, families may be wasting money by chasing an expensive diploma in those fields.
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Outside of STEM, it matters tremendously where a student receives a degree.
The starkest earnings differences are for business majors, where graduates from the selective institutions earn 12% more on average than midtier graduates and 18% more than graduates from less-selective colleges. Likewise, social-science majors from selective colleges earn 11% more than their midtier counterparts and 14% more than those from less-selective schools.
For education majors, the differences are 6% and 9%, respectively. In humanities, graduates of selective schools earn 11% more than those from less-selective ones, although they don’t earn more than those from midtier schools.
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Joined: Feb 2012
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I find this kind of analysis highly problematic on two counts.
1. Reducing education to salaries.
2. Averages mean nothing without considering the standard deviations and distribution. Also this is not considering location and area of employment.
My take is if you are an elite student who can take advantage of what the university offers beyond just doing your class work an elite university makes a difference. For example, research, cross-disciplinary work. If not any good university will teach you the class curriculum.
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Joined: Aug 2012
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I'm going to keep refreshing my browser until JonLaw weighs in. I need a good sardonic giggle. I'm waiting JonLaw .....
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Joined: Jul 2011
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I'm going to keep refreshing my browser until JonLaw weighs in. I need a good sardonic giggle. I'm waiting JonLaw ..... I generally don't argue with news feeds.
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Joined: Nov 2008
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Such data also can't be used to make inferences on causality. It is quite possible that people with higher earning potentials tend also to be accepted by elite schools, instead of elite schools adding "value" to these people. I seem to remember some studies that show exactly this (there was one comparing UPenn graduates with Penn State graduates who were accepted also by UPenn but chose Penn State instead).
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Joined: Apr 2013
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It is quite possible that people with higher earning potentials tend also to be accepted by elite schools, instead of elite schools adding "value" to these people. This may be the premise of the book "It's the Student, Not the College", discussed in an old thread here. Also the book "Where You Go is not Who You'll Be", discussed in an old thread here. The research tome, "How College Affects Students" mentioned in an old post here may also be of interest. The defining characteristic may be internal locus of control.
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Joined: Feb 2010
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Such data also can't be used to make inferences on causality. It is quite possible that people with higher earning potentials tend also to be accepted by elite schools, instead of elite schools adding "value" to these people. They did try to control for this. From the article: (It’s important to note that we controlled for numerous other factors that might influence postgraduation earnings, such as family income, race/ethnicity, gender, marital status, SAT score, postgraduate degree and age at graduation and more.)
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Joined: Apr 2013
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They did try to control for this. From the article: (It’s important to note that we controlled for numerous other factors that might influence postgraduation earnings, such as family income, race/ethnicity, gender, marital status, SAT score, postgraduate degree and age at graduation and more.) Few studies seem to try to control for student attitudinal characteristics which may be described as grit, persistence, perseverance, growth mindset, resilience, internal locus of control...? This is not to say that the article is not making a valid point. In which case the higher earnings in some fields may be related, in part, to strong alumni networks. This is something which other colleges & universities could potentially focus on building/improving as a means of increasing the future careers of their students.
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Joined: Jan 2008
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It seems logical that a student that aspires for a more elite college would aspire for greater career success.
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Joined: Apr 2012
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It seems logical that a student that aspires for a more elite college would aspire for greater career success. But career success does not necessarily equal higher income. My alma mater tends to attract students with a bent towards social justice. It's a highly ranked school, except when it comes to rankings by post-graduation income. Lots of my classmates have great careers in advocacy and helping others, but they're not necessarily making a lot of money.
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