Cost of living is higher in the Bay area than in southern California so how does the difference compare when cost of living is taken into account?
They are using all available years, starting 25+ years ago, which can magnify the difference. In more recent years, when UCLA and UCB had more comparable selectivity, the numbers are more similar. Some example numbers are below.
Median 2 β 3 year earnings progression for 2021 grads
UCB CS Grads: $154k β $175k
UCLA CS Grads: $150k β $170k
Median 2 β 5 year earnings progression for 2019 grads
UCB CS Grads: $176k β $214k β $217k β $245k
UCLA CS Grads: $161k β $200k β $218k β $235k
Median 2 β 10 year earnings progression for 2014 grads, in steps of 2 years
UCB CS Grads: $141k β $181k β $234k β $330k β $266k
UCLA CS Grads: $126k β $172k β $218k β $307k β $276k
If you broke it down further, I expect youβd see a notable variation by both location and specific company. The companies that employed the most new UCB CS grads are below:
- Amazon β 152
- Google β 75
- Atlassian β 43
- Facebook β 39
- Microsoft β 38