(Financial) Return on Investment (UC vs. CSU by major)

Parents Forum
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<p>Saw this link in [this</a> post](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/california-colleges/1644685-csu-uc-earnings-by-major-and-college-system.html]this”>CSU/UC - earnings by major and college system - State Forums - College Confidential Forums):</p>

<p>[Interactive:</a> See how long it will take California college graduates to break even on their education](<a href=“http://www.sacbee.com/2011/07/27/3798191/interactive-see-how-long-it-will.html]Interactive:”>http://www.sacbee.com/2011/07/27/3798191/interactive-see-how-long-it-will.html)</p>

<p>Given all of the attention that the Payscale ROI rankings have attracted recently, the data shown here gives a counterpoint. The variation in ROI appears to be mostly by major, not by university system (you can choose the UC system or CSU system, not individual campuses, but there are noticeable cost, selectivity, and prestige differences between the two systems). The page and data are from 2011, however.</p>

<p>This is not to say that students should choose their college and major mainly based on financial ROI. But the high cost of college these days forces students to consider the financial ROI implications, particularly when student loan debt is involved. It also means that students need to dig deeper than superficial, often inaccurate, sayings like “STEM majors have better pay levels”.</p>

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<p>Yes-I did a number of possible majors for my son at both campuses and noticed a large difference in predicted salary between the two systems. I wonder just how accurate this is and why it should be that an employee who has a degree from, say, UCSD in CS is more valuable than an employee with a CS degree from SDSU.</p>

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<p>Cool link UCB. As is always the case with these general types of calculators, it will be less predictive for specific programs at specific schools if these are particularly strong or week. For example, Cal Poly SLO has an exceptionally strong engineering program. Those graduates often make more than UC grads.</p>

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<p>As noted, it is based on UC and CSU systemwide comparisons, so it would be risky to draw conclusions about specific campuses. Also note that the selectivity difference between the UC and CSU systems (obviously with some overlap for some campuses) may be a significant factor in the differing pay levels – if a school (system) starts with better students, its graduates may be the better ones who pass more of the interviews and get more choice of jobs.</p>

<p>But also note that major appears to be much more significant in post-graduation pay levels than whether one attended a UC or CSU.</p>

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<p>More interesting is to see the majors that have the same breakeven point for undergrad</p>