Is An MIT Education Really Worth It? (Hint: Yes)

[MITChris]

<p>Hi everyone! Just got back from a two week vacation in Alaska, so I apologise if I have not been around to answer questions or PMs. </p>

<p>I did, however, want to share with y’all something interesting. We speak a lot about the value of an MIT education. And we define “value” fairly broadly. The extracurriculars are a value. The social experiences of a brilliant and diverse community are a value. The culture and pizzazz of Boston and Cambridge are values. </p>

<p>But, especially in these times of economic uncertainty, there are more cold-hard-cash sorts of value. So though I very rarely just play the shill here on CC, you might want to know that [according</a> to Business Week](<a href=“Businessweek - Bloomberg”>Businessweek - Bloomberg): </p>

<p>

Over the course of a working life, college graduates earn more than high school graduates. Over the past decade, research estimates have pegged that figure at $900,00, $1.2 million, and $1.6 million.</p>

<p>…</p>

<p>The top of the list was dominated by elite private universities, with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology taking the top spot. Its net 30-year ROI of nearly $1.7 million makes it the most valuable undergraduate degree in the nation. The large number of MIT students who enter such high-paying fields as engineering and computer science certainly helped, but the school’s advantages go well beyond that, says Melanie Parker, executive director for global education and career development at MIT. “All the students at MIT, regardless of their major, take a strong core curriculum, which exposes them to more in-depth science and math than students at most other programs,” Parker says. “Employers look for any major from MIT, because our students are prepared for almost anything.”

</p>

<p>additionally, check out [this</a> Kauffman Institute study](<a href=“http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2009/kauffman-study-0217.html]this”>Kauffman Foundation study finds MIT alumni companies generate billions for regional economies | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology): </p>

<p>

According to the study, “Entrepreneurial Impact: The Role of MIT,” which analyzes the economic effect of MIT alumni-founded companies and its entrepreneurial ecosystem, if the active companies founded by MIT graduates formed an independent nation, their revenues would make that nation at least the 17th-largest economy in the world. Within the U.S., these companies currently generate hundreds of billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of jobs to regional economies, particularly those in Massachusetts and California. **Globally, a less conservative estimate of their annual world sales would equal $2 trillion, producing the equivalent of the 11th-largest economy in the world.
**
“MIT’s significant economic impact is of particular interest because it provides an important model for universities interested in helping their students become more effective entrepreneurs,” said Lesa Mitchell, a vice president of the Kauffman Foundation.</p>

<p>…Highlights of the findings include:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>An estimated 6,900 MIT alumni companies with worldwide sales of approximately $164 billion are located in Massachusetts alone and represent 26 percent of the sales of all Massachusetts companies.</p></li>
<li><p>4,100 MIT alumni-founded firms are based in California, and generate an estimated $134 billion in worldwide sales.</p></li>
<li><p>States currently benefiting most from jobs created by MIT alumni companies are Massachusetts (estimated at just under one million jobs worldwide), California (estimated at 526,000 jobs), New York (estimated at 231,000 jobs), Texas (estimated at 184,000) and Virginia (estimated at 136,000).

</p></li>
</ul>

<p>(emphasis mine) </p>

<p>So obviously - and I mean this honestly - the economic component of a school is only part of the puzzle of value. But when you’re looking at MIT and other schools in the future, and trying to weigh different options with different values in mind, these data might help you answer the eternal question of whether MIT is “worth it” when compared to its competitors.</p>

[villager]

<p>I have always wondered why,at least in software,Stanford seems to trump MIT:Yahoo,Google etc.I know MIT alumni set up plenty of companies,but they dont seem to be as visible as Stanford`s.</p>

[harvardfan]

<p>Very interesting. However, quite contrary to the conclusion of the article, reputation of school is not as important as subect of major in ROI. If you rank the net return per graduate, six of the top ten are technical schools, with Colorado School of Mine beating Princeton, Yale, U Penn or Cornell. MIT ranks third in that category, probably due to dilution from small number of humanity majors.</p>

[Jimmy797]

<p>Um, woah.
Those are some insane statistics :D</p>

[MeSsIaH_1]

<p>

@MITChris

I apologise if I have not been around to… PMs

:)</p>

<p>okay being mature now</p>

[noimagination]

<p>The PayScale ranking is terrible. It does not factor in cost of living variations and fails to consider a student’s field of study.</p>

[harvardfan]

<p>Sometimes truth is ugly. Payscale actually did its best to shield the ugly side of raw facts by factoring in graduation rate. Colorado School of Mine is obviously an eye sore in the raw data. Modifying the result with graduation rate saves a lot of faces for those IVY league schools.</p>

[WongTongTong]

<p>@messiah- only you would think that ;)</p>

[iCalculus]

<p>Certainly, but an MIT degree doesn’t suit everyone.</p>

[25Squared]

<p>@harvardfan: That’s very true. Mines is a hotbed (literally) for geology and chemical (specifically petroleum) engineering. Big Oil does a lot of recruiting there. Basically, if the industry needs your graduates, they’ll be off to a pretty good start.</p>

[Sidfromaus]

<p>yes:
An MIT surveyor once found the gates of Hell
He looked the devil in the eye, and said “You’re looking well”
The devil looked right back at him, and said “Why visit me -
You’ve been through Hell already; you went to MIT!”</p>