I noted a similar pattern. For example, a comparison of earnings between top 5 USNWR ranked colleges and top 5 largest colleges is below. At the top ranked colleges, CS is almost always the highest earning major, usually by a wide margin. However, at the larger publics that are not especially high ranked in CS, the highest earning majors are usually engineering fields. CS often lags behind engineering and is well below the top ranked USNWR colleges. National salary surveys such as Payscale, follow a similar pattern to the larger colleges, with CS lagging behind some popular engineering fields.
I expect there are many factors that contribute to this effect. One may be a limited supply of especially high earnings CS positions that tend to be concentrated in a few specific high cost of living areas, such as Silicon Valley. One related factor is student selection. I’d expect top USNWR ranked grads to be more likely to target such positions even if on the other side of the country; and I’d expect large public grads to be more likely to target local positions in their home state, which generally does not include the SV or similar very high salary area. Another factor is employer selection. The hiring process for such positions is competitive, and I’d expect grads from top USNWR positions are more likely to do well in interviews, more likely to have the skills and knowledge that the employers are looking for, and often have better networking/connections.
CS Earnings for Top 5 National in USNWR
- Princeton – NA
- Harvard – $129k
- Columbia – $96k
- MIT – $118k CS / $117k EECS
- Yale – $120k
CS Earnings for Top 5 CS in USNWR
- CMU – $139k
- MIT – $118k CS / $117k EECS
- Stanford – $126k
- Berkeley – $115k CS / $117k EECS
- UIUC – $92k
CS Earnings for Top 5 Largest Colleges
- UCF – $58k (CS is 5th highest earning major)
- Texas A&M – $71k (CS is 6th highest earning major)
- Ohio State – $64k (CS is 8th highest earning major)
- FIU – $55k (CS is 7th highest earning major)
- Florida – $74k