College Graduate Salary Statistics

College seniors and graduate students should look beyond their school’s academic advising office when looking for college graduate salary statistics.  The Internet gives students access to universities, government agencies, and publications that offer the latest in college graduate salary statistics. 

Using College Graduate Salary Statistics

College graduates and entry-level professionals can use salary statistics to plot out their career paths.  As college freshmen and sophomores determine their majors, salary statistics can eliminate careers that fail to pay enough for a student’s desired quality of living.  Undergraduates trying to decide whether graduate school is the right choice can use salary statistics to see the financial boost a graduate degree can provide.  While college graduate salary statistics should not be a sole career determinant, college and graduate students can clarify their academic decisions through statistical resources. 

Salary statistics are vital to young professionals who are trying to measure their salaries against competing professionals.  As entry-level professionals try to break into middle management, salary statistics can be used to determine fair requests for raises.  The use of state-specific salary statistics for accountants, doctors, and investment bankers has helped new graduates figure their worth in the job market.  An analysis of college graduate salary statistics from year to year can reveal rises and falls within a particular industry. 

University Alumni Statistics

Individual academic departments at universities throughout the United States conduct salary surveys with past students.  Recent graduates can use university alumni surveys to determine if their entry-level salaries match annual salaries reported by their colleagues.  The Fisher College of Business at the Ohio State University© (http://fisher.osu.edu/offices/career-management/salary/graduate-salary/) is a good starting point for a review of college graduate salary statistics.  The Fisher College© survey asks MBA graduates to report their annual salaries, signing bonuses, and job titles every year.  The annual survey breaks down salary statistics by job title, industry, and region for easier review. 

Your review of graduate salary surveys from other universities should be done within the context of your professional field.  If you are a chemical engineer just entering the work force, you may want to use the Carnegie Mellon University© survey (http://www.studentaffairs.cmu.edu/career/employ/salary/cit.html) rather than looking at the Fisher College’s© results.  Another way to filter out salary statistics from university alumni is to look at the relative prestige of the school in question.  Carnegie Mellon© and the Ohio State University© are highly regarded institutions which may produce higher salaries than community colleges, lower-tier public schools, and private colleges. 


National Survey Of Recent College Graduates

The National Science Foundation and the Department of Commerce conduct the National Survey of Recent College Graduates (NSRCG) to determine college graduate salary statistics in scientific fields.  The NSRCG (http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/srvyrecentgrads/) is sent out to graduates of science, engineering, and medical fields under the age of 76 throughout the United States.  The National Science Foundation publishes this survey of college graduate salary statistics every two years to outline the state of scientific careers in the United States. 

The 2006 NSRCG indicated that 85% of science graduates in 2005-2006 were gainfully employed including 84% of bachelor degree holders and 90% of graduate degree recipients.  The median income for all respondents was $39,000 for respondents with bachelor degrees and $56,000 for graduate degree holders.  The highest earners among NSRCG participants were engineers, earning between $52,000 and $65,000 per year.  The field of 1.98 million participants allowed the National Science Foundation and the Department of Commerce to develop a good overview of salaries for engineers, doctors, and researchers.  The NSRCG went as far as to determine the gender of its participants and found that 56% of respondents were women, a significant increase over past surveys. 

Occupational Outlook Handbook

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes its Occupational Outlook Handbook every two years to provide independent salary information to millions of Americans.  The Occupational Outlook Handbook (http://www.bls.gov/OCO/) covers educational requirements, salaries, and job growth for more than eight hundred jobs in the United States.  In addition to industry-wide salary statistics for college graduates, the Occupational Outlook Handbook offers an assessment of salaries and industry growth on a state-by-state basis.  The Occupational Outlook Handbook should be the top bookmark in any online tool kit for college graduate salary statistics. 

We can use the desktop publisher page from the 2008-2009 Occupational Outlook Handbook (http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos276.htm) as a sample of the publication’s in-depth information.  Desktop publishers with college degrees earned an average annual salary of $34,130 during the May 2006 study period.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that desktop publishing jobs will hold steady at their 2006 level of 32,000 jobs nationwide.  The Occupational Outlook Handbook notes that job prospects for tech-savvy desktop publishers remain good because of turnover among older publishers. 

College Graduate Salary Statistics In Print

The preeminent authority for college graduate information in the United States is The Princeton Review© (http://www.princetonreview.com).  This source of college, graduate, and professional program information publishes booklets on choosing majors, finding the right universities, and preparing for SAT and ACT exams.  The Princeton Review© publishes an annual Guide to College Majors that lists annual salaries, potential career paths, and descriptions for majors from anthropology to zoology.  This guide can help high school and college students filter out career options before choosing their academic field. 

Your search for college graduate salary statistics in print may only require opening your Sunday newspaper.  Parade Magazine© publishes a “How Did You Do?”  (http://www.parade.com/articles/editions/2007/edition_04-15-2007/WPE_lead) article regularly to highlight salary statistics for high school, college, and advanced degree graduates.  Parade Magazine© digs deeper than other publications to provide college graduate survey statistics that are useful for their readers.  The “How Did You Do?” article typically starts with an analysis of employee optimism, salary, and benefits trends and fast-rising careers.  Parade Magazine© features the top five positions for high school and college graduates in terms of median salary.  The most interesting aspect of the “How Did You Do?” is the sampling of weekly pay among more than a dozen jobs.  This listing puts in perspective the vast difference in take-home pay between high-level positions in engineering and law and lower-level jobs as telemarketers and dishwashers.





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