I think the OP was referring to average salaries after graduation which I think they measure 6-years after graduation. As a business school, Bentley is likely to have much higher average salaries 6-years after graduation than Reed where a large number of students will still be toiling away in academia or professional training like medical residencies. A better measure would be salaries after 20 years in which case I expect the two would be closer because Reed puts out a lot of doctors and lawyers as well as PhDs and in those professions the big earnings years come later.
According to Niche, median earnings 6-years after graduation are as follows:
Bentley: $86,900
Reed: $42,200
By that measure, a student from a poor family who is looking for a good job IMMEDIATELY upon graduation would be better served by Bentley than Reed.
I am just a yokel living in Texas, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. I believe Reed has a far better national reputation than Bentley. I wish you could visit and see, Iām curious to see how you like it. And congratulations on your full-ride offer, that is just phenomenal!!!
Reputation in academia? Yes, of course. Reed puts out a phenomenal number o PhDs as well as academic superstars like Fulbright Fellows and Rhodes Scholars. It rivals the Ivy Leagues on those measures. Reputation in the business world? Iām not so sure. If you surveyed say the Big Five accounting firms then Bentley is going to have a far higher reputation because Reed doesnāt have an accounting department or even any business classes.
And donāt get me wrong. As a Reed grad I think it is a phenomenal place. A full ride to Reed is a tremendous opportunity and not one to turn down lightly. The OP just needs to have a clear idea of what she would be signing up for since she has never visited. A Bentley education and a Reed education set one on two very different life paths. The OP should understand this before making a decision.
As a parent, Iād love to send my daughter to Reed but we would be much more likely to be paying full freight. So we are exploring a lot of other options.
I think of the OPās choices much as I would, say, Yale and Babson. Yes, Babsonās curriculum is generally more career oriented. But Yaleās overall academics, resources and reputation confer considerable distinctions of their own.
I wouldnāt use the USNWR rankings for Reed because Reed doesnāt share data with USNWR and consequently its ratings are pushed down many dozens of places from where they otherwise would be. If you want to compare Reed to other schools using numerical rankings you will get a fairer comparison using one of the other rating sites like Niche, Fiske, Princeton Review, Forbes, etc.
Is it Reedās fault for not just going along with USNWR like most other schools? Probably. They are quirky that way. It seems rather hypocritical to refuse to participate and then complain about the results. But that is what they do: https://www.reed.edu/reed-magazine/articles/2019/usnews-discrepancy.html
You are of course right. I was making the comment for the OP and others who might be reading this thread because the link you provided for Reed takes you straight to the USNWR page for Reed in which their ranking for Reed (68th for national liberal arts schools) is prominently displayed at the top of the page in bold and one has to scroll past their other various rankings to get to the information on beginning salary. The salary information might well be highly accurate (although I"m not sure how they collect it other than some sort of voluntary survey). But the rankings are arguably distorted.
@jennilope93 - I am very concerned about your description of your family as āwe are very poorā. You donāt have the luxury of choosing a good social fit. You need to focus on affordability. Hoping for a good starting salary right after graduation should not mean that you put your family into a boat-load of debt. Even if you do get that good job when you graduate, you and your family will struggle for years to get the debt paid off.
If you run the numbers, and decide that none of the places on your list are affordable right now, go to the Financial Aid Forum, and get some help with working up a whole new list. Your grades and test scores must be pretty good or you wouldnāt have been admitted to Reed and the others. You might find out that you need to take a gap year, and apply for college to start in the fall of 2021. But that wouldnāt necessarily be a bad thing. Every year here at CC we see some students find better options for themselves by choosing a gap year.
The difference in average salaries reflects location. Boston and NY salaries are inflated because of the high cost of living. You might actually live better on $43k and no debt in Portland than you would on a higher salary plus debt in NYC or Boston.
I would never advise someone to take on debt when we might be entering a 5-10 year recession.
Maybe. But Reed is really more of national school than Bentley. Only a small fraction of students are even from Oregon. More are from the Northeast and California. So a great number of grads are going to be scattering to the winds compared to Bentley which is much more tied into Boston and the Northeast corridor. Especially because a large number of Reed students move on to grad school and professional schools and there isnāt much of that available in Portland except for the local med school and Portland State which is regional commuter school. There are plenty of Reed grads who stay in the Portland area. But I expect it is a MUCH smaller percentage than for Bentley.
I think a bigger factor is that Bentley degrees are largely business-career oriented while Reed degrees are largely academic-oriented.
Iād trust Payscale over Niche for salary dataā¦
I also suspect there is a greater difference between the highest paid Reed grad and the lowest paid Reed grad (or highest and lowest Bentley grad) than there is between the average salaries for each college.
Bentley parent here. I will tell you I donāt know a thing about Reed. However I know a ton about Bentley.
OP are you interested in business? Bentley IS business. My S16 just graduated with an econ-finance major and a minor in entrepreneurship and second minor in international affairs. He has had 4 internships and he just landed a full time job in Boston for 70k. My D19 is a marketing major and just landed an internship to coincide with her 5 classes this fall.
Sounds great I bet, right? Yes - but here is the thing - do you have drive? My S16 made his path. Bentley educated him with all the right classes including a career development class (which carries no credit BTW) but is mandatory every year as a 6th class. It taught everything from creating a killer resume and cover letter to interview skills to elevator pitches etc. My S16 seriously made his destiny. When he landed his internships they were on his own. Sometimes he applied to over 60 internships during a semester before landing an internship for summer or the next semester. Several times he made it to second and third rounds and then they chose someone else. He was crushed at the time. Going to Bentley is amazing but as a person you have to have a thick skin to keep going and pick yourself up after rejection. The Career Center is nationally recognized but the student will ultimately drive their own ship.
Although my son landed an incredible job - he did it because he had perseverance. He refused to give up. The business field can be cut throat. He was rejected several times because he lacked connections. That never stopped him. This year he applied to 100+ full time jobs before landing his full time job.
You should know that Bentley is full of wealthy kids. I will tell you that we are middle class and my son held a work study job for 4 years. It can be depressing, annoying etc to watch your new friends drop money here and there all the time. It bothered him his first year and then it actually added to his determination to succeed. So just be aware of that too.
It sounds like Bentley and Reed are night and day. I know my kids would have never applied to a liberal arts school because there are no majors at a LAC that interest them. I am kind of shocked that you are deciding between two completely different schools.
So think about which school is the best fit for a major and career for YOU. Definitely do not ignore the out of pocket costs. That is huge overall. You do not want to graduate with lots of debt. Know that if you choose Bentley you will need to be driven - itās a great school but it is not laid back at all The students thrive on leadership in the classroom, in clubs, and in the real world. Does that sound like you? Only you can answer that.
Of the top 22 employers they cited, only three are businesses and all of those are west coast tech firms: Microsoft, Intel, and Apple.
The other 17 most common employers are all in academia/education (11), government (5) and health care (1). The NIH employees are probably mostly scientists. The USDA employees are probably mostly wildlife biologists and environmental scientists with the Forest Service. The Kaiser Permanente folks are probably mostly doctors and health care administrators.
I expect Bentley is exactly the opposite. In fact I would bet that their top 22 employers are all businesses, and all in the northeast.
Bentley crushes Reed on Georgetown CEWās ROI analysis at the 10, 15, 20, 30, and 40 year marks. Reed actually has a zero NPV at the 10 year mark. Zero.
Iām pretty sure that Reed is one of the schools that guarantees meeting full financial need with their financial aid package. That would include room/board, fees, and even travel. That doesnāt necessarily mean no loans or work-study. But it means the OP can afford it. Bentley provides no such guarantee.
@jennilope93 , as others have said, I think there is virtually no overlap in applications to the two schools. They are extremely different, and cater to very different kinds of students. You will likely find the subject matter covered at Reed far more esoteric, and the curriculum far more demanding particularly given the strong distribution requirements across academic sectors. Culturally, the student bodies are worlds apart. A full ride to Reed is an amazing opportunity but if you are not interested in grad school, it may not be the best fit.