faculty salaries, SAT scores, and price

College Search & Lists
1

<p>Here is some year-old data on average instructional faculty salary, SAT 75th percentile, and annual tuition (out-of-state) and fees from US Dept Ed. The Cal Tech data seems strange. Is average salary an indicator of faculty quality? Do outstanding faculty attract outstanding students? Is there a mutual gravitational pull between quality faculty and students that works over time? How does a university become selective? </p>

<p>Among universities, the correlation between average salary and SAT 75th percentile is high (.72). Among LACs, that correlation is low (.37). Among universities, the correlation between average salary and tuition is low (.40). Among LACs, that correlation is very high (.85). The correlation between tuition and SAT is moderately high for universities (.55) and low for LACs (.10). I’m not sure what it all means but I thought some of you might be interested. I converted ACT 30 to SAT 1350.</p>

<p>HARVARD UNIVERSITY 129869 1590 30620
STANFORD UNIVERSITY 124950 1560 29847
UNIVERSITY OF PENN 118496 1510 30716
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY 117833 1560 29910
NORTHWESTERN UNIV 111970 1480 30085
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO 109917 1510 30729
YALE UNIVERSITY 108512 1580 29820
MASS INST TECH 106545 1560 30600
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 104686 1510 31472
EMORY UNIVERSITY 102165 1460 28940
CORNELL UNIVERSITY 102096 1470 30167
UNIV OF CAL-LOS ANGELES 101424 1410 23542
UNIV OF CAL-BERKELEY 100279 1440 23686
BROWN UNIVERSITY 97110 1500 30672
DUKE UNIVERSITY 95599 1520 30720
RICE UNIVERSITY 95428 1530 21206
CARNEGIE MELLON UNIV 95264 1480 31036
UNIVERSITY NOTRE DAME 94675 1460 29512
WASHINGTON UNIV ST LOU 92835 1480 30546
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY 91160 1460 30163
VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY 91091 1430 29240
WELLESLEY COLLEGE 90978 1450 29796
WILLIAMS COLLEGE 90391 1510 29990
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIV 89761 1470 30140
UNIV OF MICH-ANN ARBOR 89212 1350 26027
UNIV OF VIRGINIA 88927 1430 22890
SWARTHMORE COLLEGE 88667 1530 30094
POMONA COLLEGE 87177 1520 28365
GEORGIA TECH 86990 1430 17558
UNIV NORTH CAR CHAP HIL 85394 1390 17549
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE 84946 1530 30465
UNIV OF WISC-MADISON 84113 1350 19892
TUFTS UNIVERSITY 83112 1420 30969
BOWDOIN COLLEGE 81505 1440 31626
VASSAR COLLEGE 80006 1450 30895
MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 79729 1490<br>
WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY 78706 1390 28310
DAVIDSON COLLEGE 75376 1440 27171
HAVERFORD COLLEGE 74783 1450 30270
CARLETON COLLEGE 72311 1480 30666
CALIFORNIA TECH 65087 1580 25566
WESLEYAN COLLEGE 43604 1460 10900</p>

2

<p>Good find. Those are some interesting information. As for Caltech, that is strange, but then they have a 3:1 student:faculty ratio.</p>

3

<p>Salaries are best viewed in relation to local cost of living. According to websites that compute these things, my salary here in the midwest is equivalent in buying power to a salary $100,000 higher than mine in the Northeast.</p>

<p>A house that’s worth about $300,000 here would cost over a million dollars in the NYC suburbs.</p>

<p>That $129k salary at Harvard buys less than the $93k at Wash U.</p>

<p>According to <a href=“Cost of Living Calculator - Cost of Living Comparison Index Tool | Bankrate”>Cost of Living Calculator - Cost of Living Comparison Index Tool | Bankrate;

<p>the breakeven salary in Boston would be $132k. So the Wash U prof. is actually slightly better off financially, on a cost-adjusted basis than the Harvard prof.</p>

4

<p>The data for Wesleyan “College” was included instead of Wesleyan “University” (by mistake).</p>