<p>My friend who graduated engineering 2 years before I graduated with my BSEE went straight into mechanical engineering. By the way, we both attended state schools. I went into engineering for 3 years then pursued medicine. A full 20 years after my graduation, we have the same net worth. Though I make 4 - 5 times his income, but I’ve spent years without pay and incurred a lot of school debt.</p>
<p>I think that is something that is forgotten when we analyze income. Income and net worth are different. How much money did the MIT or medical school graduate have to borrow? How many hours did they have to work? And what type of jobs did they pursue?</p>
<p>Here is my advice: make the best of your MIT education and dream big. If you entered UG with big dreams, don’t chase a regular engineering job when you graduate or you will find yourself making regular pay. I’ve worked with engineers from top schools and found nothing special. The engineers who were previous technologists always ran circles around the other engineers. But we were always paid the same. Remember, pay is a function of supply and demand, not your alma mater.</p>
<p>Btw, Larry Page’s partner, Sergey Brin attended UG at University of Maryland.</p>