Union, RPI in top 20 for "return on investment"

nott memorial

Not(t) a bad deal?

An online service called PayScale has ranked colleges based on "return on investment."

Here are how the schools in the Capital Region stacked up:

Oddly, neither St. Rose nor Russell Sage Colleges were on the list of 852 schools.

Businessweek has the same rankings posted with a few more categories.

Here's the methodology, which is worth skimming. In short: the numbers were calculated using the 30 year median pay for a 2009 grad with a bachelor's degree, in a full time job.

MIT was ranked #1. The highest ranked public school was UC-Berkeley at #16.

(Thank, Fred)

Earlier on AOA:
+ Skidmore, Union, RPI among nation's most expensive
+ Capital Region college tuition

Comments

My college isn't included, hence these rankings are BS...I forget what we're ranked but it's not in the top 10 or 12 of USNews Lib arts colleges I'll eat my hat...kind of silly to exclude top schools...a quick eyeball reveals that Pomona College, a Top 10 school, was also excluded.

The sample size of St. Rose graduates is probably too small. I could also see where a private school that has historically been primarily a teacher's college wouldn't present a good ROI (even in NY), especially when you consider that 2010 tuition is much higher.

The private schools with good ROI are driven by reputation/social networking, engineering and science fields that generate higher paying jobs.

From the methodology section:

Bachelors Only: Only employees who possess a Bachelor's Degree and no higher degrees are included. This means Bachelor graduates who go on to earn a Master's degree, MBA, MD, JD, PhD, or other advanced degree are not included.

For some Liberal Arts, Ivy League, and highly selective schools, graduates with degrees higher than a bachelor's degree can represent a significant fraction of all graduates.

Careers that require advanced degrees, such as law or medicine, are not included.

Uh yeah.. so most of the kids from my undergrad are excluded???

What's the point of this ranking then?

Especially considering the current economic climate where holding a bachelor's degree is, in reality, only a base line.

unbelievable how expensive an undergrad degree is these days. how on earth does anyone afford to go to school in this country without getting into debt they will never be able to crawl out from under?! 10% ROI doesn't seem worth it - imagine all the schools that don't even provide that!

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