U.S. News’ education section recently published an article highlighting the eleven colleges that send the highest percentages of students to grad school within one year of graduation. The list is comprised of a diverse group of schools from all over the country, and the article also contained some valuable statistics about the average worth of a graduate degree. According to the author,
“Students with a master’s have an average annual salary of $62,000 and an unemployment rate of only 3 percent, compared with $48,000 and 5 percent for those with a bachelor’s degree, according to a 2012 report by the Center on Education and the Workforce at Georgetown University.”
These salaries obviously vary by field, and the Georgetown study does break down the numbers by degree: The lowest salary comes with a graduate degree in elementary education, which averages $54,000 per year, and the highest comes with a master’s in pharmaceutical sales and administration, which averages $107,000 per year.
In addition to comparing the salaries that those with a master’s degree can earn, the study also compares salaries of new college graduates (people between 22 and 26 years old with a bachelor’s degree) and experienced college graduates (people between ages 30 and 54 with a bachelor’s degree), so readers can contrast the value of a master’s degree with that of remaining in a field without pursing an advanced degree. Every major saw a salary increase with the attainment of a master’s, but the gains varied and the study didn’t specify how long it took for experienced college graduates to reach the average salaries listed.
The U.S. News article is part of a series entitled “The Short List: Grad School”, that highlights specific data points from its surveys of graduate institutions. The article can be found here, the full “Short List” series can be found here, and the Georgetown University study in its entirety is located here. Check back next week for more coverage of everything happening in the grad school admissions world!
