Penn vs. Rice Post-Graduation Salaries

Colleges & Universities University of Pennsylvania
1

<p>Hi guys, I’m trying to decide between Penn and Rice and I figured that looking at post-graduation career surveys was a good way to gauge the success of graduates from the College of Arts and Sciences at Penn and the School of Natural Sciences and the School of Social Sciences at Rice. </p>

<p>I haven’t decided between majoring in Biochemistry, Psychology, or Cognitive Science, but looking at the average Rice grad’s salary from 2007 in each of these career paths the average Rice grad substantially more than the average Rice grad in every field. </p>

<p>Biochemistry: 52,000 for a Rice grad vs. 25,000 for a penn biochem grad and 32,000 for a Penn biology grad </p>

<p>Psychology: 51,875 for a Rice grad vs. 42,000 for a Penn grad</p>

<p>Cognitive Science: 66,750 for a Rice grad vs. 32,000 for a Penn grad</p>

<p>Anyone care to elucidate here? I’m really curious why Penn grads make substantially less than their Rice peers.</p>

<p>Rice’s most recent data is from 2007 so I used the 2007 data from Penn.</p>

<p>(pages 50 and 51 in the Rice survey pages 8-39 in the Penn survey)</p>

<p><a href=“http://ccd.rice.edu/uploadedFiles/2007PGS.pdf[/url]”>http://ccd.rice.edu/uploadedFiles/2007PGS.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/undergrad/reports/CAS_2007cp.pdf[/url]”>http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/undergrad/reports/CAS_2007cp.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

2

<p>TOTAL guess here: texas’ economy is much better than pretty much everywhere else in the US so maybe the jobs that texas students get are better?</p>

3

<p>Uh…I don’t think looking at post graduation salaries is the best way to pick a school. I don’t know why Rice’s salaries are higher though…perhaps Penn is more focused on Wharton and it’s CAS gets less recognition from employers?</p>

4

<p>Here is an interesting article: [What’s</a> Your College Degree Worth? - Businessweek](<a href=“Bloomberg - Are you a robot?”>Bloomberg - Are you a robot?)</p>

5

<p>

No, it has nothing to do with Wharton. Penn CAS grads do exceedingly well in the job market, and its undergraduate science grads are as respected and marketable as those at Rice.</p>

<p>I agree that one shouldn’t put much emphasis on these relative numbers. The differences could be based on vagaries in who happened to respond to these particular surveys (the numbers of respondents for both schools are quite small), how many of these types of majors go straight to medical and grad school, etc.</p>

<p>Clearly, both Rice and Penn are top schools that are respected by any knowledgeable employers in these fields, and beyond that, I wouldn’t worry about it. Focus more on where you personally will fit best and thrive academically and otherwise. The rest will take care of itself.</p>

6

<p>Are you kidding me? There were over 100 Penn CAS graduates who got investment banking jobs and there were like 12 from Rice. These employment statistics aren’t even comparable; Penn is the far superior school for elite jobs.</p>

7

<p>Goldenboy: what if the OP doesn’t want to work in investment banking or finance/consulting?</p>

8

<p>That’s interesting side-by-side data, but I have trouble believing it’s really significant. In each case, fewer than half of the graduating class responded to the survey, and they were self-selected. At Penn, far more women than men responded; Rice doesn’t make clear whether that was the case there. In general, Penn seems to have had a much greater response level.</p>

<p>Rice has a really small number of respondents in each area: 7 in Biochemistry and Psychology, and 2 in Cognitive Sciences. At that level, one or two people going to work for Dad or Mom in a cushy job is going to affect the “average” salary a lot. Penn had 27 reporting in Psychology, 17 in Biology, 6 in Cognitive Science, 3 in Biochemistry . . . and 24 in Biological Basis of Behavior, a major that doesn’t exist at Rice and clearly overlaps/competes with all those other majors at Penn. Also, I note that Penn didn’t provide salary data for double majors who were employed, unless there were more than one of them, which there generally wasn’t. Anyway, the point is that Penn gave you information about a LOT more people than Rice – 77 for those four areas vs. 17 at Rice. (And, what?, Rice doesn’t have a Biology major?)</p>

<p>Also, it’s pretty clear from the information that many of the Penn students are doing fundamentally different things than the Rice students. Of the Rice students responding, a big 3 said they were doing scientific research – and that’s 3 out of all the employed Rice students, not 3 of 17 in these areas – and 13 said they were teaching. If you look at what the Penn students in these areas are doing, lots and lots are working in research labs (probably expecting to apply to medical school or PhD programs in the near future), and a bunch are working for Teach for America or NYC Teaching Fellows. Neither of those jobs is likely to raise the group average salary, to say the least, but they don’t mean that the people who take them plan to be underpaid their whole lives. (Or some of them do, but for moral reasons, not because they couldn’t earn more.) I’m sure there are people like that at Rice, too, but they clearly aren’t showing up in this survey.</p>

<p>And for all that, the range of salaries offered seems to be pretty similar at both colleges. So the apparent higher average salaries for Rice students is almost certainly a function of one or two people in each category, and that’s an anecdote, not data.</p>