Ivy League Schools With The Best Mid-Career Salaries: PayScale List

According to salary data website PayScale, Princeton University graduates have the highest mid-career salaries (it's also the overall best-paying college in the country and the only college in the country that has an average mid-career salary more than $125,000). Harvard University came in second.

Check out a slideshow of PayScale's best-value Ivy League schools below. What do you think of this list? Leave your opinion in the comments section.

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Princeton University $130,000

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Comments

[linzybel]

08:01 AM on 08/01/2011

Princeton engineer here, 57 years old, $70k. Teacher. Classmate of Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, self-made net worth $7B. What does this tell you about college? Not much.

[inkhosi]

10:32 AM on 08/05/2011

Well, hey, that's sort of a misleading characterization.

[realpragmatist]

12:42 PM on 08/14/2011

Sir, no one can take the accomplishment of qualifying for an Ivy League engineering program 40 years ago.
You salary has more to do with the choice of your career than JUST the school you went to. 70K in this economy with benefits and the satisfaction and respectability of a teacher is definitely respectable.
But on the same token, if we were not making teacher highly paid, that is another different issue to be concerned and addressed. Good luck to you and thanks for serving students.
My father was a college professor and I have the highest respect for teachers.

[texfly]

03:37 AM on 07/28/2011

Ivy league? Mid-Career? $150K? Well down here in Taxes, Bubba's boy makes $150K tightning bolts on an oil rig in the gulf. And he can't even write a sentance! So much for ejucashun.

[CAPTK]

02:01 PM on 07/31/2011

Remember, this is the AVERAGE of the entire school. Some make far more, some make far less. Few of Bubba's boys will make that kind of money over the course of decades of employment, a few years in the fields for sure, but after they burn out of that it's another story.

[helenherowe]

03:01 PM on 08/07/2011

We know how the ignorant in Texas advance. We had one in the White House and he destroyed the country.

[texfly]

03:16 PM on 08/07/2011

And watch out ... there's another one coming.

[AcademicFreedom]

06:05 PM on 07/27/2011

I'm surprised the numbers are so low.

[Mike Sprinkel]

10:56 AM on 07/27/2011

Cornell made the list? Is Cornell an Ivy League school? No way.

[mmpgd99]

08:23 PM on 07/27/2011

Yes Mike Sprinkel --- Cornell is not only one fo the eight "Ivy League" colleges, it is unique among them. Why?? I quote from its website:

"Once called "the first American university" by educational historian Frederick Rudolph, Cornell University represents a distinctive mix of eminent scholarship and democratic ideals. Adding practical subjects to the classics and admitting qualified students regardless of nationality, race, social circumstance, gender, or religion was quite a departure when Cornell was founded in 1865.

Today's Cornell reflects this heritage of egalitarian excellence. Both a private university and the land-grant institution of New York State, Cornell University is the most educationally diverse member of the Ivy League.

On the Ithaca campus alone nearly 20,000 students representing every state and 120 countries choose from among 4,000 courses in 11 undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools. Many undergraduates participate in a wide range of interdisciplinary programs, play meaningful roles in original research, and study in Cornell programs in Washington, New York City and the world over."

Cornell offers a fabulous amalgam of the diversity of interests and experiences students are looking for - all set in a beautiful four-season setting. Attendance there opens your eyes and enriches your perspective over your entire lifetime. I have never regretted choosing Cornell over more "elite" options and have been a wiser, better person because of my choice. No dedicated students should neglect considering Cornell.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Mike Sprinkel]

09:46 PM on 07/27/2011

Well played.

[AME7932]

11:56 AM on 07/29/2011

Ha ha. Read the GQ article on douchiest schools. The Cornell "rant" was hilarious!

[realpragmatist]

12:47 PM on 08/14/2011

Please try doing Electrical Engineering (undergraduate program) at Cornell.
Also, Cornell. MIT, and University of California at Berkeley are the most recognized and respected universities in the world, especially in places like China and India that might be the most important players with the US and Brazil in this century.

[argyle]

08:24 AM on 07/27/2011

Thirteen years of state sponsored school, if you include kindergarten, and I have to mortgage my entire life in order to learn the important part?

How you people managed to build a society with that kind of logic I still find to be the most important proof of divine intervention I have.

[MamasLittleBoy]

08:57 AM on 07/27/2011

Well, it wasn't always this way, and this seems like another symptom of the widening gap between US rich and poor. Only time will tell if this can be sustained, but history is pretty clear on that - it can't.

[CSNC]

01:59 AM on 07/27/2011

Connections, connections, connections.

Like the, exceptionally good of its kind, independent Senator of Vermont says (paraphrasing):

"Most things in life are not that complicated"

H

[gravity defiant]

01:26 AM on 07/27/2011

1) Aren't there only 8 Ivy League schools? So this isn't a list of Ivies with the best mid-career salaries; it's a list of all the Ivies ranked by mid-career salary. Nit-picky, I guess, but it's kind of a dumb mistake.

2) As so many others have said, there's not necessarily a causative relationship here. Maybe these people are earning lots of money because there's a large overlap between the type of person whose daddy gives them a vice-presidency in the company for graduation, and the type of person who goes to an Ivy League school. In that case, they would be earning the same kind of money if they'd gone to community college...but daddy built a new wing on the library to make sure THAT didn't happen.

[nopojoe]

12:23 AM on 07/27/2011

$130K average mid career salary? I know plumbers that do better than that!
Is the education of such a quality that you come out 4 years later with exposure to the Classics, capable of critical thinking, all those squishy libber-all arts things? State colleges and universities often have such a corporate overlay to them, I am not sure they are such a bargain either. And they certainly are not that cheap either. If you can get into an Ivy, it might be worth the extra tariff. My kids have had a heckuva time getting started after college, and I am not sure the degree makes that much difference compared to their friends that didn't go.

[sempronia]

01:19 AM on 07/27/2011

It's an arms race -- the BA is nothing, it's the MA now. My Ivy BA didn't get me a job, but it got me into this graduate (state university) program to wait out the recession with a stipend...

[realpragmatist]

12:52 PM on 08/14/2011

I agree. In two years Masters has become more common.
Phd still is exclusive and has its (most) respect. Not everyone can do it. I have Masters (did well to get a graduate scholastic achievement award) and I am of average intelligence but with lots of diligence.
A BA from an Ivy League is still more than just a BA, though, in this economy it might not translate to the advantage that it had till very recently.
But the fact that you could make it in an Ivy should give you definite advantages in whatever you try, No?

[realpragmatist]

12:53 PM on 08/14/2011

I meant "twenty years" not two years. Masters program was still exclusive in the early 1990s but now, I find that more and more people do Masters program in all disciplines.

[gravity defiant]

01:27 AM on 07/27/2011

It's not what you know; it's who you know. An Ivy League school doesn't give you a better education. It gives you access to the good ol' boys' network.

[sixty-one]

06:49 PM on 07/26/2011

I have a cousin who attended Stanford and then Harvard Medical School, and another cousin who went to Cal Tech. My brother went to Cal and then on to law school. None of them had connections. They just worked hard and are bright people. They are all extremely successful, and not only financially. They each give professional help to those in need and are generous in their communities. They are all self-employed and employ others. I have a sister who was a "hippie" at a small state college and she is now a V.P. of an investment house. I've never understood exactly how that happened, but since it wasn't through connections, it had to have been through hard work.

It seems I have read many posts about this article that seemed to be based on envy of those who got dealt a better hand at birth. I was a mediocre student who attended a state university but have a career I enjoy. I make less money than most of my relatives, but I envy no one. Thinking back, perhaps the most important message we all grew up with was "Life is not fair. Get over it." I guess I got over it.

[Mike Sprinkel]

11:08 AM on 07/27/2011

I think you're right. You simply can't get into an Ivy League school because of your father's money alone. I've known folks that went to those schools, and they worked very hard to get in - wealthy or not.

Of course, your relatives that went to Harvard and Cal Tech have advanced professional degrees. I think this article was just talking about Bachelor's degrees.

[helenherowe]

03:04 PM on 08/07/2011

Hard work and some luck.

[purplemonkeydishwasher]

03:41 PM on 07/26/2011

I may not be as anti-establishment as some of the folks commenting on HP, but I do agree with some of the previous comments. While it's certainly not the case for all graduates, it does seem that Ivy League alumni tend to come from well-connected families that already have a lot of money and social influence. So it follows that those people would be among the best paid, because it is easier for them to get jobs. For those graduates who are not from well-connected families, there is still an advantage due to the perceived superiority of education from one of those schools. Whether people accept it or not, it's a form of class discrimination, and one that will likely never be stopped.

[Brent Rossen]

07:22 AM on 07/27/2011

The cost of school needs to go down. Signing for a hundred thousand dollar loan, if you have the credit, is akin to taking your life savings to a donald trump owned casino, at least in this economic climate. Back in the 80s and 90s there was an education boom that lead to an oversupply of graduates, and then as soon as stuff hit the fan, corporate bean counters decided to lay off what they considered to be 'redundant personnel'.
With concurrently less jobs and more job seekers it falls to the private sector to create jobs which have a positive impact in the real world and and not just in profit land. Unfortunately that's not likely to happen because the very fortunate are shielded from the real world by their advisers and lawyers.
If the government could shift funds from military and foreign interests to higher education grants then maybe this country would have a better and more inclusive standard of education. Not these exclusive schools that tend to breed arrogance and classism.

[Stokes]

08:46 AM on 07/27/2011

Breeders of arrogance, classism and infallibility.

[Mike Sprinkel]

11:12 AM on 07/27/2011

Eh, you're probably right on the connections front, but how can you blame the kids for utilizing connections? Lord knows that if I had connections, I would exhaust every last one.

More importantly, connections are never, ever, enough. You must prove yourself somehow, no matter how well connected you may be. You can't just waltz into an Ivy League school because you have connections or family money (except for maybe Brown or Cornell, which aren't even Ivy League imo). You must work very, very hard in high school and otherwise distinguish yourself in some manner. All the folks from my high school that went to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc. were in the top 10, and had already started a business or cured a disease or something. They were by no means decadent Playboys living off their father's dole and influence.

[purplemonkeydishwasher]

04:17 PM on 07/27/2011

True. And I guess it is notable that this article is in regards to "mid-career" salaries, which would imply that these people were at least decent enough workers to maintain a solid career (although we aren't given a definition of "mid-career"). I certainly don't think that everyone who attends an Ivy League school is an entitled elitist. I just think that it sucks that a person who was the top of their class at, say, the University of Idaho, would be less qualified than someone who graduated with an A or B average at Harvard. There are great professors to be found everywhere, and there's nothing that says a student at a state school is going to be any less hard-working or intelligent than one at an IL school.

[ty12039]

02:22 PM on 08/02/2011

" (except for maybe Brown or Cornell, which aren't even Ivy League imo)"

Ignorance^

[becky bradshaw]

02:53 PM on 07/26/2011

The typical Ivy league freshman is from a family with connections and fortune. A study of this topic which does not correct for socioeconomic background is flawed.

[sempronia]

01:16 AM on 07/27/2011

Most of my friends weren't, but like you, I'm going on anecdotal evidence.

[Jackie2000]

02:32 AM on 07/27/2011

We have a single parent in our family (no child support), who sent their child to one of these schools and no way were there connections and fortune involved. Actually, out of the numerous universities the child applied and was accepted to, this is the one they chose.
You say "typical", but that was not the case w/their numerous friends and classmates (more than 2,000 on FB and counting).
Not sure where you are getting your info from - but if you know someone who actually experienced it and met their friends, classmates, etc over several years, you would learn that is not the case.

What is true, is that many of these kids simply worked hard. This parent planned ahead and made sure they lived in an area where education was a priority. They purposely moved to a district and made education, not cable tv and other expenditures a priority. The child had a great upbringing, went to museums, concerts, plays, traveled, played all sorts of sports and ended up with a sport scholarship as well as some academic scholarships.
Plus, the parent worked hard and saved and saved and saved (and did a little borrowing) and saved and the child graduated with the single-parent debt free.

It's called planning and priorities.

The child had a job waiting for them more than six months before they graduated and they held the job for a year (as they are taking the summer off).

[Jackie2000]

02:33 AM on 07/27/2011

But then again, the parent never complained "Oh....woe is me"....as you are.
They made a plan, stuck w/it...and voila...child has an Ivy League education, LOVED every minute of it (even though it was super tough), met many great people, traveled the world and has a great job waiting for them.

This is a great example for my family and we are following suit. The only "flaw" is in your poor attitude.

[laborgrunt]

04:36 AM on 07/27/2011

Jackie Im glad this kid you are talking about made it. But s/he is by no means representative of the types of kids that get accepted into these schools. Lets not kid ourselves.

[wwwTHENOIREFFECTcom]

11:30 AM on 07/26/2011

As much as one pays to go to those institutions I would be disappointed if they didn't rank the highest. Not to mention that the children of some of the wealthiest families go there, so networking abounds for those who are wealthy and those that aren't.

[mamafoxof3]

01:18 PM on 07/26/2011

The cost to attend an Ivy League school is not all that much more than out-of-state tuition to many State schools. We live in Kansas. My daughter wanted to attend college on the east coast. We checked out the Universities of Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. They had similar tuition costs to Brown, which was the better fit for her, so that's where she's going. Yes, it's a lot of money, but the prestige of a Brown diploma will be helpful when applying to law school.

I have no doubt she would have succeeded at any school she attended, because that's just the kind of student she is, but the atmosphere at Brown has kept her on track, and allowed her to take classes she might not ordinarily have taken since they have an Open Curriculum.

[Tenzin Jamyang]

10:04 AM on 07/26/2011

A mid career salary of 100,000 US $? Well that sucks.

[Epimenides]

09:43 AM on 07/26/2011

The tried and true formula for accumulating wealth in America sometimes referred to as "the illusion of social mobility":

Start with a family legacy, add country club society, multiply by prep school and Ivy League connections, then subtract all scruples and any remaining altruism.

Proven to succeed an average of 371 out of every "New York 400" times, regardless of how stupid, lazy, or drunken the heir in question.

[Rouvey]

06:29 PM on 07/26/2011

That's how Ted Kennedy did it and so did G. Dubya Bush!

[Epimenides]

08:28 PM on 07/26/2011

Kennedy always was altruistic; Dubya never gave a second thought to another person.

[ricchh]

08:36 AM on 07/26/2011

This article is no surprise. The Ivy League schools have always been considered the best in the nation (and possibly the world), for centuries. They have the best professors, smart, motivated students, largest endowments, massive facilities, most connections, and huge alumni networks. Most are also affilliated with the best medical, law, hospitals, and business schools in the nation. They also have extremely generous financial packages that anyone in the nation can apply and afford if accepted. This is no surprise that they would also have the best careers and make the most money after graduation. denying any of these facts is ignorant.

[gravity defiant]

01:30 AM on 07/27/2011

Wow, did the Ivy League pay you for that commercial?

Seriously, they're way overrated. They're good schools, but so are many, many others.

[ricchh]

10:12 AM on 07/27/2011

If the article clearly stated that the ivy league schools have the highest graduate salaries, why would you then say they are overrated? Does not make sense.