<p>Adjusted for cost of living…</p>
<p>[The</a> Independent Florida Alligator: News - UF graduates rank sixth in U.S. for potential salaries](<a href=“http://www.alligator.org/articles/2009/08/17/news/campus/090814_salaries.txt]The”>http://www.alligator.org/articles/2009/08/17/news/campus/090814_salaries.txt)</p>
<p>That’s so misleading. U Florida ranks sixth in the US based on salary potential according to PayScale’s survey among the Princeton Review’s top 20 party schools.</p>
<p>owned!!!</p>
<p>What an honor…</p>
<p>Haha I agree totally noimagination. I was reading that and started to laugh at the pride developed over that ranking…</p>
<p>Haha. And they were only 6th</p>
<p>Well UF is ranked #1 overall for career placement according to Princeton Review.</p>
<p>Also has a very strong alumni base:</p>
<p>[List</a> of University of Florida people - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_University_of_Florida_alumni]List”>List of University of Florida alumni - Wikipedia)</p>
<ul>
<li>Keep in the mind the cost of living is mad cheap in Florida as well</li>
</ul>
<p>This thread is a great example of why UF people made it into the “biggest homers on CC” list.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>What’s their methodology?</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>Keep in mind that you have to live in Florida.</p>
<p>“Keep in mind that you have to live in Florida.”</p>
<p>Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Jacksonville are not all that bad. Granted they are not Chicago, NYC, DC, or LA but the cities arent horrible either.</p>
<p>Only 6th out of 20? How many students here brag about being in the top 30%?</p>
<p>
This is obviously subjective, but I could not imagine it. I just visited family down there, and the 96 degree heat coupled with ridiculous humidity made me want to crawl into the freezer. The fact that Florida’s cities are a giant strip of sprawled out blacktop makes it worse.</p>
<p>You people who jump in the anti-gator bandwagon are just killing me. Logic-Warrior, I’d expect more from someone with your moniker. </p>
<p>Now that you’re done laughing, let’s look at the numbers.</p>
<p>A mid career salary of a UF graduate of 88,400 living in Tampa is equivalent to a cost of living adjusted salary of 153,746 in Manhattan according to salary.com:</p>
<p>[Salary.com’s</a> Cost of Living Wizard Tool](<a href=“Cost of Living Calculator - Comparison by State, City and Zip code | Salary.com”>Cost of Living Calculator - Comparison by State, City and Zip code | Salary.com)</p>
<p>A job that pays 88,400 in Tampa typically pays 112,000 in NYC. That isn’t too bad.</p>
<p>Let’s take a less extreme example: Boston</p>
<p>88,400 in Tampa = 126,000 to maintain the same cost of living in Boston
Jobs that pay 88,400 in Tampa typically pay 106,000 in Boston.</p>
<p>Pasring the numbers, you can see that the typical Florida grad wins in both of these situations.</p>
<p>I am suspicious of ANY study that doesn’t standardize data, but that is the scientist in me. This is a huge problem with me for the US NEWS rankings, too. US NEWS standardizes faculty salary but for some reason, not starting salary. I have always felt that the ranking cadre should pick a good center based town- like Des Moines Iowa and standardize ALL money data to there. This would level the playing field and lead to valid results. To not do this leads to bad results for so many valid reasons, I believe a freshman taking stats 101 could give a failing grade to the results. </p>
<p>The bottom line- UF Graduates do VERY WELL compared to many of the best schools in the country. People can stand on the sidelines and cast aspersions UF’s way, but the only arguments that pass the validity litmus test are those that use reason, logic and perhaps some “GOOD” math. In fact, assuming that most of the schools in the top 20 or 30 in payscale’s survey flock to the high paying populus areas, Florida would easily rank among the top 25-35 of ALL schools and could be included in a “band” that includes schools like Georgetown, Duke, RPI, Brown and U-Chicago. </p>
<p>THAT was the point of the link I originally posted.</p>
<p>I think people are making fun of you because you humorously mistitled your thread, not that gators don’t do well. Also, not all Florida grads work in Florida and not all grads from schools in Boston/NYC work in Boston and NYC.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>6th best out of 20 party schools? How is that impressive?</p>
<p>^^^
Four of the top 10 party schools have mid career salaries equal to ot HIGHER than NYU. Yes, you read correctly, New York University!</p>
<p>Your arguments are shallow if you don’t acknowledge the faults with the results.</p>
<p>Oh, and your lack of reason is evident with your assumption that “party school” should be sub-par. </p>
<p>It’s hard trying to reason with someone who takes the emotioonal rout and ignores reason…hehe.</p>
<p>“I think people are making fun of you because you humorously mistitled your thread, not that gators don’t do well.”</p>
<p>I copied and pasted the title from the article.</p>
<p>"Also, not all Florida grads work in Florida and not all grads from schools in Boston/NYC work in Boston and NYC. "</p>
<p>More than 80% do. Either way, your statement bolsters my argument that the data needs to be standardized to get an apples to apples comparison.</p>
<p>tomlawsky wrote:</p>
<p>“You people who jump in the anti-gator bandwagon are just killing me.”</p>
<p>You just make it so easy to laugh at you. If you Gators are going to continue bragging, at least do it a better job of it.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>Just for fun, take a look at this: [Top</a> US Colleges ? Graduate Salary Statistics](<a href=“http://www.payscale.com/best-colleges/top-us-colleges-graduate-salary-statistics.asp]Top”>http://www.payscale.com/best-colleges/top-us-colleges-graduate-salary-statistics.asp)</p>
<p>That’s the overall list that covers all schools. U Florida is ranked 150th. You raise a very valid point about the low cost of living in many parts of Florida. Unfortunately, I have better things to do than adjust all 150 of these schools for the cost of living. However, I think we can draw the following conclusions:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The PayScale survey does more harm than good to U Florida’s reputation. To compare apples-to-apples, let’s look at the rankings among public schools. PayScale has U Florida ranked 34th. Compare that to US News, who considers U Florida #17 among publics.</p></li>
<li><p>I will never use the results of this survey to bring down U Florida’s reputation, whatever you might say to the contrary. As you wisely pointed out, the cost of living is low in most of Florida. Be that as it may, the idea that ranking 34th among public schools in a salary survey helps U Florida’s cause is ludicrous. There are a number of other relatively cheap areas ranked higher (I can go through and find them if you really want me to).</p></li>
<li><p>Rankings (of all varieties) are rather stupid and subjective.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>
</p>
<p>Not really. If you were looking for the safest (best crash protection) car, would you not consult a car safety ranking? Or would you just wing it and hope that the car you buy will protect you and your family from a head-on collision?</p>
<p>Objective rankings are useful; Subjective are less so.</p>
<p>The PayScale ranking isn’t very reliable because numerous factors need to be controlled.</p>