MWolf:
foobar1:
This data may be unsettling to some posters on CC. Can you really believe the nursing graduate from “Sonoma State” has a median starting salary of $110,000 while the Harvard history graduate has a median starting salary of $48,000?
Supply and demand. Nurses are in very high demand across the USA, while historians are not, even if they have Harvard degrees in history.
A nurse makes a higher entry level salary than a historian, and a nursing degree from any reputable university is generally good enough to get a person hired at most work places.
A starting salary of $48,000 for a history major is an amazing salary. People from low income families graduating with a BA in history from lesser known colleges usually are making in the upper $20Ks, to the lower $30Ks.
A median salary of $110,000 for a nurse with a BSN and one year of experience does seem high. However, if they have a ADNs and attend Sonoma State to finish their BSN, they are newly graduated BSN, but have a good number of years experience already, despite having “just graduated a year ago”. It also helps that California has some of the highest salaries for nurses, and Sonoma State is in an area which is very high CoL, and the salaries reflect this.
So while $110K still seems high for the median, nurses who are earning salaries like this within a year of graduating would not be uncommon.
Nursing salaries are very geographical dependant. Cost of living is higher in California and New York and the list showing highest salaries reflects this in their school lists.
A new grad nurse in Cali very likely starts out at $50/hr whereas new nurses in my Midwest area only make $25-30/hr to start.