No - I’m simply noting why Babson/Bentley/Bryant were in the top 50 linkedin rank.
One can rank on whatever they want. They chose to rank on some type of career thing - I’ll have to look again. Maybe salary. Usually these have pharmaceutical schools up top.
I’m simply noting that schools focused on these high paying pre professional jobs will do well in a study like this.
I wonder - maybe I missed it - if Rose Hulman was on the list?
But yes, I do think colleges should be transparent and show salary data. Some have that now don’t seem to.
In the end, it’s about branding. People conceive a Bowdoin, Vassar or Wes as top schools. But their outcomes may not belie that.
Heck, Vassar is on none of the target (Peak or College Transitions) IB lists that people swear by for a kid to get a job and yet people would recommend it for an IB career.
That’s because they’ve created this brand or perception - and if a statistic or metric would hurt that perception, they’re not going to use it.
In the end, they are businesses and market and sell a story like everyone else.
In the case of a Bentley/Babson and even Bryant which has no pedigree to most I believe - they have a salary story to sell - and now a new rank to sell on…because that’s a metric they can use.
You are spot on. The limitations of those self report outcome data lists have been explained ad nauseaum. Yet some remain attached to them. Time to link the topical thread again for further support and explanation:
At the prestigious/elite schools this thread is about, it may not be most, but a significant portion attend med school each year. Amcas and individual schools have data on this.
Based on schools in the Top 15 or so that release acceptance %, 80-85% are accepted to US MD programs and Amcas (or the schools themselves) lists the exact number who apply: each year 250-360 students matriculate to US MD programs from 4 schools I checked, with graduating classes of 1500-1700, JHU is at the top with about 25% going to med school in the US(either right away or with 1-2 low-salary gap years). Others are 15-20%. The salaries for this group for med school and residency and any gap years will be low for the first 10 yrs but then earnings soar for physicians.
Some of these same elite schools have huge start up culture, so stock options in the future becomes a significant possibility for their grads.
Add law school and phD to the mix, as these same elites also have many who go those routes, and it may be over half of each graduating class whose initial salary and potential salary after 10 years cannot be reflected accurately by the numbers.
IMO schools should still publish some starting data and also publish 15yr or 20yr data but I am sure it is hard to get good data from a statistically significant portion of alums.
Preposterous - over half - of you look at top to or 50.
Vandy used to publish all med school apps and decisions of their undergrads. They stopped. It was eye opening. You learn there a lot of non name schools and not just MD.
Hopkins may be an outlier but few overall are in this boat.
My comments were about this LinkedIn survey. And why some do better.
I’ll note tho - there were many schools that were posting salaries that no longer are. Why is that ??
Some want to live in the fantasy world that they don’t matter.
Because the data was bad, the analysis was not statistically valid (sample size of 3 for some schools in some professions? A freshman would get N/C for a paper trying to draw a conclusion from a sample size that small) and the numbers were ALL self-reported and not able to be independently validated.
It’s like the hucksters on Facebook swearing that if you send them $10 they’ll send you their “proprietary” mix of lemon juice, salt and water which five of their best friends then post “I lost 5 lbs in three days on this stuff- it’s magic!”
Folks “out there” may love unverified and non-projectable results attained by self-reporting. But it doesn’t fly anywhere else.
I have NEVER answered a salary survey from either my undergrad or MBA program. How many of us have?
As this topic was already discussed in another thread, we have moved all relevant comments over to this discussion that is specifically about the LinkedIN ranking.
On the list, they broke down the sectors of success. I believe Fairfield was high in healthcare, which isn’t surprising considering where they are located.
This is 2025. Like many on here, I suspect you are 60+. I wasn’t asked either. But it’s a new era. Things have changed since you and I dud an MBA although we absolutely had in grad school and it was factored into the Bus Week rankings which were the reievant ones back then. I chose a lesser ranked school than IU and UT because the salaries were just $3k less and IU was placing in higher cost Chicago. This was late 90s.
And schools that don’t have enough respondents note this.
You can believe as you want, as I will as well - but many a parent / student is looking at salaries.
Those who don’t have high enough ones simply lack transparency - so they don’t damage the brand.
I applaud the Amhersts of the world that post data. But why hide the salary data ? You have it. They are showing enough for kids to say - this is a good school. Bain took someone. To say this is all garbage… you can think so but many don’t and that’s the point. It’s marketing.
The problem with such rankings is not considering influence from individual student differences. If a college has a 3% admit rate and admits some of the most gifted, high achieving, motivated, and connected kids in the United States; it is not surprising that the students might have better than average career success. These same students would likely also have better than average career success if they took a full ride scholarship at a public flagship, rather than attended the listed selective privates.
To separate the influence from individual student differences from name of college attended, you need a different type of review. An example is comparing the outcome of similar kids who attended and did not attend listed schools, rather than just looking at outcomes of average student at listed schools. Studies that have done such reviews usually draw very different conclusions.
You are correct - like law school - more come from elite some say. Well they were higher level to begin with.
Yet major matters too-hence Babson, Bentley and Bryant riding high on this one. I’ve seen Babson and Bentley on others based on money too. Babson a selective school. Bentley not really and Bryant not.
Quick poll of my kids. A total of 7 institutions, all either Ivy or "highly rejective’. Nobody has ever filled out a salary survey…grad or undergrad, and none recall ever being asked. I pity the folks who are making decisions based on tiny datasets of self reported information which is not verified. But Babson is a fine institution if that’s what a kid is interested in/focused on.
I honestly can’t say enough about Purdue’s career center. They were #33 on this list. We were beyond impressed at the supports our daughter received with everything from resume updating, to developing an elevator pitch, to mock interviewing, etc…
Purdue also integrates career readiness in their classes by having reps from the career center speak at classes, bringing in business leaders, hosting seminars and workshops, using real world problems for exams and projects, etc… There are also required 1 credit seminars that students must attend focused on career readiness, not just in finding jobs but also succeeding in your workplace. There is also an Essential Career Skills series, a lending closet for professional attire, video conferencing rooms for virtual interviews, etc..
Support begins on day 1 and continues throughout a students time at Purdue.
They also partner with the Office of Professional Practice which administers the co-op programs and also with student organizations that partner recent alumni with rising seniors to help them in their job search.
I don’t believe that @CC_Sorin 's post above was to be interpreted as compliance is optional, so I deleted those posts that didn’t comply.
There are certainly other threads on this site about USNWR or about methodology or similar off-topic conversations. Indeed, those threads are populated by the same users rehashing the comments here. So for purposes of this thread:
She used career services (UNC) to review her resume for a summer research position and for her first job (also met with a prof). After that she asked profs to review her CV.
