Researching colleges to attend opens a floodgate of rankings. It’s up to the reader to decide how valuable, and accurate, they might be. One method of ranking is by salary. One way to do that is to measure median mid-career income.
Money.Mic looked at a recent survey and reported on the top nine schools with the “the best median mid-career salary.” Four of the nine specialize in STEM, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Two are service academies. Two are Ivy League schools.
Service Academies
The top school in this ranking is SUNY-Maritime, a state school providing training for merchant marine careers. This is not the national Merchant Marine Academy though both are located near each other in the New York City area. SUNY-Maritime graduates can look forward to a mid-career median salary of $134,000.
Tied for third is the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis. Its median of $126,000 is based upon all graduates, not just those serving in the military.
STEM Schools
California’s Harvey Mudd College is no relation to the Harry Mudd who introduced Tribbles to the Star Trek universe. This college specializes in STEM and its median is 133,000.
The “Institutes of Technology” come in at five and six. California Institute of Technology has a mid-career median of $125,000. On the other coast, MIT is sixth with $124,000.
Stanford is huge, but is best known for its STEM programs. Ranking seventh, its grads have a mid-career median of $123,000.
Ivy League
Harvard is tied for third at $126,000. The story notes the school’s claim that 100% of its students can graduate debt free, an important concern.
The second Ivy League school on this list is Princeton, at eighth. Its median is $122,000 and a US News ranking places it first nationally.
One business school is on the list, Babson College. Its mid-career median is $121,000. It is located in the Boston area. US News ranks its entrepreneurship program as first nationally.
Here are a few other rankings:
Best academic school: Stanford. Top party school: Tulane. Most players in the NFL (2015): LSU. Most players in the NBA (2015): Kentucky. Most owners of pro sports franchises: Harvard
And, to up the envy factor:
Median 2016-2017 NBA salary: $3,000,000
Median 2015 NFL salary: $860,000
