Harvard seniors expect to earn higher salaries than most college grads
College graduates are “young, educated, and jobless,’’ according to Newsweek, but that may not apply to Harvard alums.
Harvard University’s commencement is today, and 71 percent of the graduates say they will be joining the workforce after graduation, according to a senior survey published in The Harvard Crimson.
But what kind of jobs are they getting? They’re set to get good enough positions to pay off any student loans quickly. Forty-one percent of respondents said they’ll make more than $70,000 and 8 percent expect to earn $110,000 or more right out of college.
Of the grads entering the workforce, 48 percent said they are going into either consulting, finance, or technology/engineering.
The Ivy League university’s alums are not the norm. Nationally, 2014 college graduates earned a median starting salary of $45,478, according to a new report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers.
That report surveyed more than 45,000 graduates who entered a variety of fields, but even those who were engineering majors didn’t make what two-fifths of Harvard grads are expecting, earning just under $65,000 to start.
College graduates from the entire nation’s class of 2015 who majored in electrical engineering can expect a starting salary of $57,000—the biggest payout on a Forbes chart of college degrees with the highest starting salaries.
For some Harvard grads, that money will be going to pay off their education, rather than straight into their pockets. One-fifth of the Crimson’s survey respondents said that they or their family members are currently in debt due to college-related expenses.
New England Schools on the Forbes Top Colleges List
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