This, in LAC, is also an outlier since a large % are engineers. 2 of top majors are engineering (as of now) Quick Reference | Admissions | Union College which is obviously VERY different than most in that category… that said it is also isn’t a Tech college- kind of like Lehigh - which is also its own unusually high mix of a high % engineers/business students (as it was founded to be)….
Obviously no data is perfect though!
This marriage point is interesting, because of the geography of Rose, I’d expect it to be a bit lower, even given the tech focus…. The other schools (with exception maybe of kettering) are in MUCH higher COL areas, and I imagine most students end up in more high CoL areas..
Colo School of Mines is almost all engineers, and really almost all STEM. My friend’s daughter who graduated was a math major and has worked for 10 years in Boulder for a law firm (she does something with trademarks, not sure what but think it has little to do with math). It has a high tuition, even for instate students, but has a lot of financial aid. My nephew who attends will have little debt when he graduates even though he is a Pell student and have parents who didn’t contribute much. He’s even going to stay for a 5th year masters as it won’t cost him much (and he will only be 21 in May of senior year).
But averaging is tough. Some of the private tech only schools are pretty small, so a few students making a ton can skew the average since there are few ‘history majors working at Starbucks’ to bring down that average.
If you only compare civil engineer to civil engineer salaries, the numbers might be a lot closer.