Well, we don't want to actually "shock" you with the average salary for college graduate, but we do think you'll find them very interesting.
What is the starting salary of a college graduate? It depends on where you get a job! Or does it?
Perhaps, you're average starting salary as a college graduate depends heavily on where you graduate from...
In this post, we'll be using average college grad salaries (after graduation) to show how going to a tier 1 university can raise your average starting salary by over $10,000.
In our make community college easy videos, we explained that Tier 1 university graduates are making (on average) about $10,000 more than Tier 2 university graduates directly after graduation. One of our readers asked, "how did we get to that answer?"
So lets take a look...
A couple years ago, US News College Rankings used to publish the average starting salary for each college/university for FREE. Now it is paid, so you will need the paid version to see the exact numbers. Although, you can check out sites like PayScale.com who report on college earnings. A more recent, free average salary analysis has been provided by Business week's Undergraduate Business School Rankings.
Average Starting Salary For Tier 1 Universities vs Tier 2 Universities
When looking at the starting salary for top 50 universities, you can see here that the average starting salary is mostly between $50,000 to $60,000. However, as you get lower in the rankings, from 51 to 100, the average starting salary starts to decline below $50,000 to around $45,000 but also as low as $32,500.
Because of the huge drop off in starting salary after getting into the tier 2 university range, we figured that a $10,000 difference between tier 1 and tier 2 universities was a conservative difference that made sense. Clearly, going to a tier 1 university will give you better chances at earning more money as a recent college graduate.
By transferring from community college to ivy league, you can increase your starting salary by over $10,000. An extra $10,000 per year can add up quickly in the first couple of year of working. For someone paying $1,600 in rent every month, $10,000 is half your rent for the whole year!
Not to mention, when you transfer to ivy league and tier 1 universities, you'll get the opportunity to get jobs that can pay over $100,000 a year. We know some students that graduated from NYU Stern, started working in finance and payed off their college debt with just a bonus! It's no doubt that going to a prestigious, well established college can bring you tremendous benefits. Click here to get helpful resources!
