
Where to Go to College If You Want a High-Paying Job - prostoalex
http://www.fastcoexist.com/3045598/forget-harvard-heres-where-to-go-to-college-if-you-want-a-high-paying-job?utm_source=facebook
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sgeisenh
This is Simpson's paradox at work. And the article even acknowledges it. Most
of the universities on the list have disproportionate numbers of students in
STEM fields.

That's why Ivy League schools aren't well represented. And also why places
like CMU or University of California don't appear. Additionally, salaries
aren't adjusted for cost of living. Most of the universities here are located
in areas with a high cost of living, so salaries will typically be higher.

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balls187
Rose-Hulman (my alma mater) is in Terre Haute Indiana is rated high, with
fairly low cost of living.

The General Tso's Index is currently $4.90

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tghw
But would you want to stay in Terre Haute?

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balls187
Obtain a quality education.

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xvedejas
As a Senior at Caltech: I fear that a large reason Caltech students tend to be
able to make money is because you don't come to Caltech for the name, you come
to it because you care about science, math, or engineering. Plenty of us were
accepted to big name universities; so we've been effective at getting students
who only care about name to select other schools. I worry that because of the
recent positive press (like this) that that may change, and as a result
Caltech's undergrad population might change to have more people who follow the
money and fewer who will work hard to deserve the money.

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balls187
Amongst STEM, I'd argue Caltech is a big name.

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visoz
This needs scaling according to students' parents' income level. It's
worthless saying students of college X all got high-income jobs if those jobs
come from their parents' networks rather than the university itself.

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evanpw
The article doesn't explain very well, but this is exactly what the study did:

"Drawing on government and private sources, this report analyzes college
“value-added,” the difference between actual alumni outcomes (like salaries)
and the outcomes one would expect given a student’s characteristics and the
type of institution."

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adamcanady
I'm a junior at Carleton, #2 on the list. It's interesting to see these
rankings come out since I have been under the impression that our graduates
don't enter STEM fields through normal channels. Until recently, our CS
department didn't have very many majors, and many of the graduates majored in
liberal arts areas. These folks found their way into big tech and financial
companies or ended up starting their own businesses several years after
graduation.

Talking to alumni, I've always heard this is because of the ability to learn
how to communicate here, but I think the difficult course load contributes a
lot to character throughout 4 years here. I'd be interested to hear how this
compares to other institutions.

The additional stats on the Brookings.edu page [1] were interesting as well.

[1]
[http://www.brookings.edu/research/reports2/2015/04/29-beyond...](http://www.brookings.edu/research/reports2/2015/04/29-beyond-
college-rankings-rothwell-kulkarni)

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mirimir
It seems that the author loves Caltech, give how the table of four-year
schools is sorted. It's sorted only by mid-career earnings, and not at all by
occupational earnings power (or loan repayment rate). With secondary sorting
by occupational earnings power, Clarkson University and MIT would be second
and third, respectively, and very close. Just sayin'.

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jacques_chester
The "X-factor" for small schools might be that they're small schools.

Small sample sizes mean higher variability. Large student populations will
regress to the mean.

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akhilcacharya
>Getting into Caltech is practically a winning lottery ticket for life.

Its really difficult to not get discouraged when reading these.

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lordnacho
I'd have titled it "What to do at college if you want a high paying job"

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walshemj
middlling paying job if you really want to make bank you do law or target wall
street/ the city not the STEM professions (outwith possibly medicine)

