Department of Education releases new alumni earnings data

In a newly revamped “College Scorecard” website, the Department of Education has published an unprecedented set of federal data that reveals how much students who receive financial loans and grants end up earning after graduation.

While median earnings among the nation’s elite universities vary, the typical Ivy League graduate who entered college in 2001 or 2002 makes at least twice as much as the typical graduate from other colleges.

White House officials claim this new information will help prospective students and their families make better evaluations of the return on investment for a college education, according to a policy paper on the College Scorecard Data webpage.

Thereportabout theUniversityshows that its graduates' median salary ten years after entering college is $75,100, as compared to $40,500 for a graduate of a median four-year university. In a second post-college metric, the data reveals that 75 percent of University graduates six years after enrollment have salaries above the “threshold” salary of $25,000 for a typical high school graduate.

Ten years after entering college, Harvard alumni report a median salaryof $87,200, while University of Pennsylvania graduates earn $78,200. A Yale graduate’s median salary stands at $66,000.

A popular comprehensive salary-tracking system for colleges before “College Scorecard” was PayScale, an online database containing over 13 million self-reported salary survey responses since 2010. PayScale currently ranks Princeton eighth in its 2015-16 College Salary Report, listing a median early-career salary —0-5 years’ experience —at $61,300 and a mid-career salary —ten or more years of experience —at $122,000.

However, the government’s now openly accessible data has allowed the public to look into some finer details. For instance, the top ten percent of Harvard graduates are earning around $250,000 by age 32. The top ten percent of Princeton graduates, who are ranked with the third highest median salary among the Ivies, are making $217,200 at about the same point in their lives. Columbia, in fourth place, has graduates making $205,500 within the top ten percent. By contrast, top earners from other institutions earn around $70,000, according to the Washington Post.

Moreover, the data reveals certain inequalities at the institutions with highest earnings potential.

According to original data files used in the Scorecard, Princeton male graduates earn $47,700 more than their female counterparts at ten years after entering college, both groups employed full-time. This difference highlights female alumni earning roughly 65 percent of their male peers’ salaries, a percentage lower than the White House’s reported national income gender gap of 77 percent.

The gender earnings gap also persists at other Ivy League institutions. Yale women earn $34,600 less than Yale men, approximately 69 percent of the men’s salaries. Harvard’s estimate falls in between those of Yale and Princeton at 67 percent. But among the Ivies, Brown appears to have the smallest pay gap, with female graduates making almost 80 percent of what their male counterparts make.

To report these figures, the government paired federal tax returns with federal student financial aid information for the first time. The data points were determined from loan and grant records reaching back to the 1990’s, according to a White House fact sheet about College Scorecard.

However, some higher education experts and institutions have criticized the quality of the data published by the Department of Education.

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Molly Corbett Broad, President of the America Council on Education, noted in a statement on Monday that the system only provides a single number for an entire institution regardless of whether a student studied chemical engineering or philosophy, and only includes the earnings of federal student loan borrowers, and so may or may not provide meaningful information to the students and families it was designed to help.

Broad did not respond to a request for comment.

Pulin Sanghvi, Executive Director of Princeton’s Career Services, expressed other concerns with the newly released college data. He noted a shift away from traditional companies and career paths, making today’s compensation packages look different from before, noting as an example that if a student joins a small startup company, he would get a lower salary but receive equity compensation from the startup. This equity would not be reported on tax returns and would not show until it is fully realized.

“Historical comparisons of compensation will become very complicated,” he said.

In addition, students are pursuing less traditional paths and looking at what they could come to love over the long-term, he said. With the rise of global opportunities and an increase in the number of small companies, students face an increasingly diverse landscape for career opportunities.

“Whole categories are changing and becoming available in today’s economy,” he added.

Abdullah Kandil ’05, who worked as a consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton for two years before going on to complete medical school, said that the topic of financial prospects never arose in conversations with undergraduate friends.

“My passion was always biology —ecology and evolutionary biology was my major and I’ve always loved that field,” he said. "It was easy for me to choose a major but I really didn’t have an idea of what I wanted to do after graduation."

It wasn’t until his junior or senior year that he decided on the pre-medicine track.

Still, he said, financial security was an important professional consideration.

“It’s one of the reasons why I made the decision to go into medicine — because of its relative job security and financial security,” he said.

Kandil further described how the Princeton name will follow students beyond their undergraduate years.

“The reputation of your undergraduate school makes a big difference — on how people perceive you, your education, your background and your work ethic,” he said. “I think it makes a big difference.”

Anne White ’05, who took a non-traditional guide job in the outdoor industry before now pursuing graduate studies in sociology, observed that post-college earnings may not be the only measure of a Princeton education.

“My value in Princeton definitely came from the contacts that I made there, opening doors for me,” she said. “Financially, on paper, it doesn’t look like I’ve been very successful but I’ve been allowed to do things that I think, by being affiliated with a Princeton University community, I have access to.”

White said financial security was an important concern for her professional decision-making, but her personal motto was to live simply. After being inspired by her Outdoor Action experience and as an avid backpacker, she lived out of a tent for more than six months after graduating.

“Princeton is really helpful if you want to go to law school, if you want to go to med school or if you want to go to Wall Street,” she said. “But otherwise, if you don’t fit into any of those categories, you’re really left on your own.”

Sanghvi said that Career Services, now undergoing a re-imagining process, has a mandate focused on empowerment. His team encourages students to take a leap of faith to better understand themselves and explore the opportunities that give them a sense of life purpose and mission.

“The best of themselves will come out as they pursue what they love, and long-term security will follow,” he said.