Top US Colleges That Pay Off The Most
When it comes to choosing a college, there are lots of factors that go into the decision. Sure, you want to go to a place where you’ll have good teachers and meet interesting people, but there’s also the question of how much your degree will be worth when you graduate. If you want some peace of mind that your four years spent in classes will pay off after graduation, consider applying to one of these schools:
Princeton University.
Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university located in Princeton, New Jersey. It’s one of the eight universities that belong to the Ivy League, and it ranks second for highest median salaries after you graduate.
Overall, graduates from Princeton earn an average $126K per year when they enter their first job after graduation—that’s higher than Harvard ($123K), Stanford ($118K), MIT ($115K) and Yale ($111K). In fact, Princeton grads have some of the highest median starting salaries out of all colleges in America!
Princeton boasts an impressive list of alumni who are famous entrepreneurs and leaders across different industries such as finance, media and politics: Tim Cook (Apple CEO); Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook CEO); Jeff Bezos (Amazon founder); Bill Gates (Microsoft co-founder).
Harvey Mudd College.
Harvey Mudd College is a private residential liberal arts college in Claremont, California, United States. The college’s name honors Harvey Seeley Mudd (1863–1955), who was a mining engineer and philanthropist. The campus comprises 167 acres and is located approximately 50 miles east of Los Angeles.
Harvey Mudd College has a reputation for being one of the most selective colleges in the United States; its admission rate is 9% compared with an average acceptance rate of 40%. It has been named as one of America’s Top Ten Best Value Colleges by Princeton Review.[1] In 2015, U.S News & World Report ranked Harvey Mudd College as No 2 among all private universities in California.[2]
Stanford University.
Stanford University is a private research university located in Stanford, California. It was founded by Leland and Jane Stanford in 1891 as a memorial to their only child, Leland Stanford Jr. who had died of typhoid fever at age 15 the previous year.
The school started with just five faculty members and eight students; it now has 7,000 undergrads, 1,800 graduate students and 605 full-time faculty members across its seven schools (Arts & Sciences; Business; Engineering; Law; Medicine; Education).
Stanford is one of the most selective universities in America: 92% of applicants get accepted every year (compared to Harvard’s 5%).
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1861 and has since grown to be one of the most prestigious universities in the world. MIT is also part of the Association of American Universities and is considered to be one of the best institutions for undergraduate education as well as graduate studies.
The aim at MIT is to allow students to learn about science, technology and engineering through hands-on learning opportunities so that they can apply their knowledge in real-life situations when they enter their careers after graduation!
California Institute of Technology.
Caltech is a private research university located in Pasadena, California. It is highly selective and has one of the highest admissions rates at around 9%. It was ranked first among American universities by US News & World Report’s 2018 Best National Universities list. Caltech also has one of the lowest acceptance rates for transfer students at 5%.
With its strong reputation as an institution that focuses on science, engineering and math programs, it isn’t surprising that Caltech pays off its alumni well after they graduate. According to Payscale data, graduates earn $112K per year on average right after graduation; this number increases slightly to $125K after 10 years of working experience.
Yale University.
Yale University is a private Ivy League research university located in New Haven, Connecticut.
Yale University was founded in 1701 as the Collegiate School. It is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution.
The original purpose of Yale College was to train future ministers for the Congregational Church, which had been established by Puritan settlers in Massachusetts at earlier dates than other denominations. By 1740, it was clear that a college education was no longer restricted to ministers who wanted to become clergymen: The majority of students were now non-clerical gentlemen seeking careers as lawyers, doctors and other professions requiring some sort of advanced schooling beyond high school or grammar school
Columbia University.
Founded in 1754 as King’s College, Columbia University is a private Ivy League research university in New York City. Columbia is one of the 14 founding members of the Association of American Universities, and is among the top five U.S. universities by endowment value and number of academic programs offered. The university has produced a number of notable alumni, including five U.S. presidents (including George H. W Bush), several foreign heads of state, U.S Supreme Court justices and Nobel Prize winners.[3] Its campus spans six blocks between West 116th Street to West 120th Street north—south; from Broadway east—west.[4][5]
The University’s international-facing faculty includes historians who specialize in topics ranging from traditional European history to present-day China; economists who study everything from markets to labor patterns across borders; political scientists whose interests range from comparative politics to international security policy; philosophers whose work focuses on ethics and metaphysics; linguists who study language acquisition both within its cultural context as well as with regard to how individuals learn languages later in life; sociologists studying how communities interact with one another through social institutions such as religion or kinship groups; psychologists interested either in individual behavior or group dynamics (with applications ranging from cognitive science/psychology); computer scientists working on subjects such as machine learning algorithms used for image processing tasks like facial recognition software
Harvard University.
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 and named after its first benefactor, the institution has some of the most remarkable alumni to have ever graduated from any school. Harvard’s main campus is home to an estimated 2,000 buildings and 40 academic departments. The university boasts a student-to-faculty ratio of 10:1 and an average class size of 20 students.
Harvard’s acceptance rate is 5%, making it one of the most selective schools in America. If you get accepted (and if your tuition fees are paid), you can take advantage of world-class facilities including an observatory on campus!
Harvard University has been ranked number one in many different categories by U.S News & World Report’s Best Colleges rankings for more than three decades now—including being named as America’s best college overall!
Brown University.
Brown University is a private Ivy League research university located in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown has been named one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution. Brown was founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. The school was named after Moses Brown, one of its original benefactors who donated money for the establishment of a college.
Dartmouth College.
Founded in 1769, the Ivy League institution of Dartmouth College has a total enrollment of about 6,500 students and a student-to-faculty ratio of 9:1. The college’s main campus is in Hanover, New Hampshire and it also has five other locations throughout the state. Dartmouth College has an 89 percent graduation rate with an average starting salary for its graduates of $70,000 — which makes it one of the best colleges for finding a high paying job after you graduate.
Having a degree from one of these colleges can make a big difference in your life
There are plenty of things you can do in life without a degree. You can work at McDonald’s or Starbucks, and you’ll probably still be able to make ends meet. But if you want a great job and eventually a great life, having a college diploma is one way to get there. A good college degree can help open doors in your career; it also opens up other opportunities such as being able to apply for certain jobs that don’t require the degree but will look favorably on it anyway because they know the quality of education their students receive is high caliber. Some employers may even pay for your tuition!
This list is just a glimpse into the many different ways that college can pay off. Whether it’s in the financial sense or otherwise, these institutions are among the best in the world and should be considered when planning your higher education. If you want to learn more about potential majors at these schools, check out our other blog post “Top 5 Majors That Pay Off The Most.”