This is pretty sad, given the cost of attendance. Tough to survive on these income levels…
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You mean for the scions of the “upper middle class who do not get financial aid” ($250k+ parent income) or the really (plutocrat) wealthy when they compare their life on <$100k income with what they grew up with?
It’s tax reported earnings, rather than salary. In addition to favoring colleges with a high concentration of highly academically qualified students, median earnings vary wildly by major. For example, continuing with the Cornell example, some College Scorecard numbers are below. Note that the medians below include students who are employed part time or employed for only portion of year. They exclude students who are attending grad/professional school. As previously noted, only kids in federal database are included, which is mostly FA recipients.
Cornell Grads Tax Reported Median Earnings
Graduated 1 Year Ago: English = $25k, Mech Eng = $72k, CS = $128k
Graduated 2 Years Ago: English = $32k, Mech Eng = $75k, CS = $122k
Graduated 3 Years Ago: English = $39k, Mech Eng = $85k, CS = $158k
Graduated 4 Years Ago English = $48k, Mech Eng = $97k, CS = $186k
Seriously, I went to a state university with no prestige at all. After a career change, I’m 10 years after graduation, and I’m more/less making that much, or even a little more, and I work in higher education, which pays roughly 15% lower than an equivalent corporate job. In other words, it’s not worth going into piles of debt over. Remember, these are east/west coast schools. The “higher” starting salaries are skewed toward areas with a much higher cost of living. In reality, you’re getting an entry level job, no more, no less. If they pay more, they can attract an experienced professional they don’t have to train.
Tells you all you need to know. Humanities are a critical part of one’s education. They infuse my world view and enrich my life. But, in my view, they need to remain a hobby…
I’m actually kind of surprised. I would have guessed higher. I’ll show this to my (CS) son who graduated 3 yrs ago (2021). I hope it will make him more aware of his accomplishments.
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A small point…assuming most of this salary data is from College Scorecard, it is “The median annual earnings of individuals that received federal student aid and began college at this institution 10 years ago, regardless of their completion status.”
So typically 6 years after graduation and approx age 28.
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Another salary article - top 5 for AI careers. No Ivy
CPSLO
Wake Forest
Trinity (Tx)
Clarkson
Knox
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The flaws in the study of only using financial aid kids, and the flaws of using 10 yrs are horrendous, to be frank.
Ok, DH and I were financial aid kids(one low income/full Pell, one a financial-aided first gen…yet no one called us that then, and we certainly did not advertise it!). We went to Duke and graduated later 90s. 10 yrs out one of us had just started chief residency year which was 48k at the time (med school is 4 yrs, residency/fellowship is 3-8 yrs MORE depending on field). The other of us was less than 2 yrs into private practice, so still on the partner-tract starting salary, which at the time was 75k for full time partner track, 55k for part-time, which was our family’s choice. We had just had our second kid. After 3 yrs, ie 13 yrs out, the salary jumped about 2.5x then took a few yrs to reach max partner level after “buy in” yrs, then over the years has grown such that even lower-paid primary care docs make 200k within 5 yrs of starting these days.
That is standard practice for ramp ups (the start is a higher now but still not great). Doing a study that uses salary only 10 yrs out eliminates all “real” medical salaries, especially considering 20 yrs ago, only 1/3 of med students took time off after undergrad (usually in low-pay research tech jobs or post baccs) and now 2/3 take a yr or more off. IF you take 2 yrs off now, then 4 yrs med school and an average 5yr residency/fellowship, the 10 yr salary could still be a resident salary, or at best a “starting” salary that in no way indicates the “real” salary they will achieve just 3 yrs later.
We both paid off full med school loans within 12 yrs of being out, and we definitely learned budgeting with a mortgage over half our monthly salary for some of our early years! People claiming 100k or 150k gross income is not enough could use some lessons we learned. Money is not everything, and we benefitted far more from our Duke education than ever could be revealed in a 10 yr salary data cull.
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of the 1,790 degrees nationwide related to computer science, 294 produced graduates who were employed both a year and four years after finishing school.
The researchers discovered only 23 of those schools had median earnings data available for the fourth year after graduation, ranking them from highest to lowest
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I just signed in to point that out, but you beat me to it. Sounds like a really poor study that was designed to get a headline that gets clicks. (and here I am commenting on it–touché) Its not clear how they made the jump from CS programs to careers in AI, but only having data on 1% of the programs is a bigger program.
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I would guess that 10 years out, you also have folks whose salaries reflect the flexibility they needed to start a family. Many of my colleagues and classmates (all women, given my age), made "arrangements " that allowed them to keep a foot in the door while working less than full-time. For most, the % drop in salary was greater than the % drop in working hours.
(And when they went back full time, they got to climb out of that hole, but that’s another story!)
There are also folks whose salaries are lower in exchange for equity participation that may or may not pan out. (I have done this.) A gamble, but usually made with some financial stability underpinning it.
Just saying that there is often more to this than a W2 wage.
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Yes, but $100k is really not asking very much???
The problem with that list is that the vast majority of AI programs are at the graduate level. While many bachelor’s programs may offer a course or two in AI, there aren’t that many that offer a full concentration or specialization in AI.
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It was just a study.
Like “all of them” they are only as good as the methodology used, response rate (even at the prominent schools, you’ll see not every student is participating in the results).
I just love these random studies - they always bring up great debate.
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I like studies with good research behind them
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I didn’t write the article. I saw it. I reviewed it. Obviously the team that wrote it did research and showed all their #s (and published these #s), etc. and thought worthy of publishing.
Whether one agrees with the study or not is up to them.
I think calling the AI college ranking article “a study” is a stretch. The authors of the article looked up some information in the CollegeScorecard database about tax reported earnings of CS grads. They state that only 23 of the 1800 colleges had “100% employability” and earnings info available. I’m not sure how “100% employability” is defined, but there is earnings information available for far more than 23 colleges. They rank the 23 colleges from highest to lowest in earnings They call the CS earnings ranking “AI” instead of CS, probably because AI is a catchier headline that may get more clicks. The result is not meaningful.
The CollegeScorecard database is public. Anyone can look up stats from the database and draw their own conclusions. There are close to 100 different stats about particular colleges that are available to review and compare.
Authors like this know there is a HUGE market of frustrated parents who want to prove to themselves that their child at Pigs Knuckle Tech will have the same future as someone who got a STEM degree from Stanford or MIT.
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I can buy that - I don’t know their motives but it makes sense.
I think mostly it’s the data they were using - only 23 schools of a gazillion provided it - so in that regard, most schools were pre eliminated.