Source: Fortune
Summary
A new Forbes ranking shows that many lower-ranked colleges can lead to six-figure salaries, challenging the assumption that only elite schools provide financial success. The list highlights that schools like Marietta College, ranked 500th, have median 10-year earnings of $105,837. Top schools like MIT and Harvard report median salaries over $120,000. The data suggests the earnings gap between top and lower-ranked schools is narrower than expected. The U.S. Department of Education reports median earnings for high school graduates at $41,800.
Our Reading
The numbers tell one story.
Top schools still lead in salaries, but lower-ranked ones come close.
Many schools show earnings over $90,000, narrowing the gap.
Financial pressures and enrollment declines affect colleges across the board.
Students and leaders question whether degrees are worth the cost.
Author: Evan Null
The college decision is about more than just salary
Post-graduation salaries are just one factor for students to consider when deciding where to go to college. Schools that repeatedly appear at the top of college rankings typically offer advantages that don’t show up in a 10-year salary figure, including expansive alumni networks, access to prominent faculty and research opportunities, and name recognition.
But any benefits come with risks and costs of their own, particularly as colleges across the country grapple with falling enrollment and mounting financial pressures.
Marietta, for example, has faced budget shortfalls that have forced it to eliminate academic programs and lay off faculty in recent years (a school’s financial health was also a factor in the Forbes ranking). In total, some 442 of the nation’s 1,700 private, nonprofit four-year colleges and universities are at risk of closing or having to merge within the next decade, according to a forecast by Huron Consulting Group.
At the same time, schools have faced growing criticism over rising tuition costs and whether degrees are delivering enough of a return on investment. The average cost of college has more than doubled over the last two decades, totaling $39,406 per student per year, including books, supplies, and daily living expenses, according to the Education Data Initiative.
This has contributed to the average student now borrowing more than $35,000 to pursue a bachelor’s degree. And for many graduates, the payoff isn’t immediate. In 2015, the unemployment rate for recent college graduates surpassed that of all workers for the first time, and since then, the gap has worsened.
Having a degree isn’t necessarily an indicator of future success, according to CEOs like Jamie Dimon and Marc Benioff
The growing skepticism around higher education isn’t limited to students and parents. Some of America’s most prominent business leaders have also questioned whether a traditional college degree is still the best path to a successful career.
Mark Zuckerberg, who famously dropped out of Harvard University to launch Facebook (now Meta), has said college remains valuable for building relationships but questioned whether higher education is adequately preparing young people for the modern workforce.
“I’m not sure that college is preparing people for the jobs that they need to have today. I think that there’s a big issue on that, and all the student debt issues are…really big,” Zuckerberg said in an interview with podcaster Theo Von last year.
“There’s going to have to be a reckoning…and people are going to have to figure out whether that makes sense. It’s sort of been this taboo thing to say, ‘Maybe not everyone needs to go to college,’ and because there’s a lot of jobs that don’t require that…people are probably coming around to that opinion a little more now than maybe like 10 years ago,” Zuckerberg added.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, who graduated from Tufts University and Harvard Business School, has similarly argued that elite education isn’t necessarily a predictor of success on the job.
