<p>The Harvard stats alone don’t reveal anything conclusive. They need to be contrasted with stats from other schools for them to mean much. Anybody have the sex stats for the U of Mississippi handy?</p>
<p>A fourth of the harvard males in that class - 12-13% could do the 9 partners thing easy.</p>
<p>And how many of you guys over 23 haven’t had sex more than 10 times in a month?</p>
<p>That’s about once every three days? Married couples I know do that…</p>
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<p>You’re wrong about stipend and salary. Everyone I know on stipend considers it a salary. And if the people I know are just weird (a possibility), then, well, these PhD students don’t have a salary, which boosts that category a bit. </p>
<p>Let’s look at some other higher education possibilities besides a PhD here:</p>
<p>1 year as a lab tech + 4 years in med school (a very common setup): No salary except for that first year.</p>
<p>4 years med school + 1 year into residency: Mean salary at that point well under $50K.</p>
<p>3 years working + 2 years in business school: No salary in business school.</p>
<p>2 years in Peace Corps or TFA + 3 years in law school: No salary in law school.</p>
<p>None of these would be rare combinations.</p>
<p>And then there are joint JD/MBA programs, joint JD/MS programs, joint MS/MBA programs, and other combos that could lead to having little or no salary five years out.</p>
<p>This, of course, doesn’t account for the various respectable careers that rarely pay over $50K/year to people 5 years out. And people with young children who have decided to be temporary or permanent stay-at-home parents.</p>
<p>What would be a more interesting stat, for aspiring i-bankers, is what percentage of Harvard’s (or any other school’s) students who <em>want</em> a career as an i-banker, get a job as an i-banker.</p>
<p>^^^jessiehl has made several excellent points. </p>
<p>Many of these people on C.C. just don’t get it. Many people who go to the elite schools are not doing it to get rich. They are going to get a well-rounded education and to (finally) be among their intellectual peers.</p>
<p>Right. The relevant question is: how many people wanted to get rich, and failed to do so? The info in this article doesn’t give much of a clue (and some of those people probably had high net worth when then enrolled at Harvard).</p>
<p>Sorry everyone, maybe I was just mislead by the survey, but it says:</p>
<p>"(Thirty-seven percent make under $50,000 and 16 percent have no salary, but grad school can most likely be blamed for that.) "</p>
<p>The survey makes it sounds as though the large amount of graduates making under 50,000 is a result of graduate school; probably students on stipend or working part time to pay for school.</p>
<p>37 + 16 = 53%.</p>
<p>I was just using the survey for information, I have absolutely no outside knowledge on this subject.</p>
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All of these do not warrant 53% of Harvard students, and that is my point to your original assumption.
Then they should just go to Swarthmore, this is Harvard.</p>
<p>Also, not everyone goes to Harvard to get rich… I think a lot of people find Harvard appealing because of its world-class academics. Whether you think it’s over-rated or not, no one can argue that Harvard doesn’t attract some of the most famous and brilliants professors and guest lecturers in the world. </p>
<p>I think to be admitted to such an exclusive school, many students must have a desire simply to learn as much as they can and broaden their intellectual horizons.</p>
<p>Could they mean that 16% have no salary and 37% make under 50K, including that 16%? Then only 21% would be making under 50K that are actually employed, which makes more sense.</p>
<p>I would agree with everything that jessie says except that the article stated that only 3% had children. Those possiblities of first five years career paths easily could add to a high percentage of the class. For example, that WSJ survey showed that somewhere ~ 20% of the Harvard class ended up in one of the top 5 programs for JD, MBA, MD, which with a high probability will occur at five years out of UG; not to mention the slackers who only go to the #8 ranked schools in each of these disciplines. Also, you can desire to be surrounded by exceptional peers without unduly forcing an extreme unpleasant environment like Swarthmore upon yourself.</p>
<p>Could you please tell me more about the ‘extreme unpleasant environment like Swarthmore’? Swarthmore is on my D’s list of colleges to look at.</p>
<p>Only 9 partners? Does that seem low to anyone?</p>
<p>I think Swarthmore is renowned for having a more intense academic experience with higher workload than even most other top schools.</p>
<p>Um… how is that ‘extreme unpleasant’ for kids who <em>enjoy</em> an intense academic experience?</p>
<p>13% have had more than 9 sexual partners since college, and 13% are going to vote for McCain. Coincidence? I think not. Who says Republicans don’t know how to party??</p>
<p>
50% of MIT students go directly to grad school (page 3 of [this</a> PDF](<a href=“http://web.mit.edu/career/www/infostats/graduation07.pdf]this”>http://web.mit.edu/career/www/infostats/graduation07.pdf)), and another 30% of the class eventually returns to school for a graduate degree. I don’t see why Harvard would be different, particularly considering that Harvard has more pre-professional students than MIT does.</p>
<p>Also, I’m a PhD student, I plan to be in graduate school for at least five years (my program’s average is six), and I definitely refer to my stipend as a salary.</p>
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<p>Word, unalove :-)</p>
<p>It’s annoying how the top poster is considering people who make < $50K “unsuccessful.” Nothing unsuccessful about being a minister, a teacher, a stay-at-home parent, or just a big-time volunteer.</p>
<p>The only conclusion you can reach ‘scientifically’ from the article is this - the 40% or so who are getting some seven times a month can’t be i-bankers.</p>
<p>Let’s do the math. We all know that i-bankers routinely work more than 100 hours a week. That means you have to work 16 or more hours a day Monday through Saturday, and still have to put in 8 hours or more on Sunday. And that’s not counting commuting to and from work … and we all know that commuting in NYC is nightmare. So the only day of the week you get a bit of time off is Sunday. And there are only four Sundays in a month …</p>
<p>
The final figure for graduate is still a lot less than what you claim. Here’s why.
Take EE, ECE PhD program at Duke for example
<a href=“http://www.gradschool.duke.edu/about_us/statistics/completeece.htm[/url]”>http://www.gradschool.duke.edu/about_us/statistics/completeece.htm</a>
5 years running total matriculated: 104
total graduated: 55
total withdrawn: 47.</p>
<p>Berkeley does not publish this information, but it’s something along this line. If you fail the prelim exam for PhD twice, you’re out. Pass rate is low.
50% go directly into graduate school, but how many of them actually finished?<br>
Is the one year MEng at MIT graduate school? Is 2 years MS graduate school? If so, they should be done. The number quoted is 5 years after graduation so all MEng, MS people should be done already and not count toward the statistic of those making less than 50k/year.</p>
<p>With today’s Bear-Stearns arrests, look for the # of sex partners to skyrocket, while % with kids stays about the same.</p>