The Truth About Starting Salaries at Top Schools

When deciding where you wish to attend school at, it is important to consider the cost of tuition and the projected benefit. I am writing to advise my readers of some unconventional wisdom passed down to me from one wiser than myself.

It seems like common sense among my classmates, but is beginning to become misinformation fast. The myth I speak about is that a higher ranked school will guarantee you a better education and a higher starting salary. While this may be true for some, this is not the case for everyone.

When researching schools, I encourage you to look beyond the number posted as the average starting salary. Many times the average starting salary is not the true starting salary. This all depends on how the stats are compiled. Many of the schools take a survey of the students who have accepted jobs before graduation and use this data to build the statistics. The tricky part about this is that many people who are in school because their job required it, have promised salary increases for when they graduate. This is not an accurate measure because they are being paid a premium for the years of service which they have already put in at the company. The starting salary of a new hire and an experienced employee are rarely equal, so it is important to take this into account.