25 East Coast Private Colleges Whose Grads Earn the Most Money
Earning a college degree is widely seen as an excellent entry to a well-paid career.
While studying STEM subjects tends to enhance expected salary expectations, there is also a discernible trend among certain private colleges to boast potential earning power.
Stuart Muller, director of custom consulting for higher education at economic modelers Emsi Burning Glass, evaluated the data for each institution in this study by "quantifying average wages across all alumni in our professional profiles data."
This involved attributing earnings from the Occupational Employment And Wages Statistics (OESW) program at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, responsible for producing annual wage estimates for approximately 800 careers.
Researchers used the national median wage by occupation, featuring only those universities with 1,000-plus profiles in Emsi's database, while smaller arts colleges were excluded from the study.
Muller told Newsweek: "By using the national average OEWS wage we are attempting to quantify outcomes based on the quality of the professional role that completers attain rather than the particulars of any salary they may earn—i.e. based on the kind of job obtained, not on the financial specifics of their hire."
He added: "An important advantage of these assumptions is they effectively allow us to assess institutional outcomes for a somewhat idealized world where an individual's gender, race, ethnicity, or location do not impact the quality of their job and wages (with the important caveat that while this method does control for how these factors may affect an individual salary, it cannot control for how demographics have affected which programs individuals enroll in and thus which occupations they are likely to find employment in)."
Here are the East Coast private colleges whose graduates proceed to earn the most money, according to this latest analysis.
25. University of Rochester ($96,443)
The University of Rochester is a mid-sized elite East Coast research college based in New York.
Popular majors at this university, boasting a reported 87 percent graduation rate, include Nursing, Biology and Computer Science.
24. University of Miami ($96,890)
The University of Miami is a private research college based in Coral Gables, Florida.
The most popular majors taken at this institution include Nursing, Finance and Psychology.
23. Brandeis University ($97,288)
Founded in 1948, Brandeis University is an elite private research college based in Waltham, Massachusetts.
Popular majors at this East Coast university, where reportedly 87 percent of students graduate, include Economics, Biology and Business.
22. Yeshiva University ($99,258)
Yeshiva is a highly rated private research college with four campuses based across New York City.
The most popular majors taken at this small educational institution include Religious Studies, Biology and Accounting.
21. Wake Forest University ($99,260)
Wake Forest is a private research college in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and founded in 1834.
Popular majors at this institution, graduating a reported 88 percent of students, include Economics, Communications and Psychology.
20. Boston College ($99,431)
Founded in 1863, Boston College is an elite private college located in Newton, Massachusetts.
Popular majors at this East Coast college with a competitive admission rate, include Economics, Psychology and Finance.
19. Villanova University ($99,874)
Founded in 1842, Villanova is a private, college located in Villanova, Pennsylvania.
Popular majors at this East Coast university which reportedly graduates roughly 90 percent of students, include Finance, Nursing and Communications.
18. Columbia University ($100,345)
Columbia University is a private Ivy League research college recognized as the oldest institution of higher education in New York
Popular majors selected by the approximated 6,000 undergraduate students include Economics, Computer Science and Political Science and Government.
17. Tufts University ($100,677)
Tufts is a medium-sized research and liberal arts university based on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts.
The most popular majors at this East Coast college include Computer Science, Economics and Biology.
16. Emory University ($100,738)
Established in 1836, Emory University is a private Methodist-founded research college based in Atlanta.
Admissions are considered completive at this mid-sized institution, where Business, Nursing, and Biology are the most popular majors.
15. Carnegie Mellon University ($101,008)
Carnegie Mellon University is a top-25 institution research college located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The elite university writes on its site: "Carnegie Mellon encourages students to think in new ways—to choose their program and change the world."
14. Stevens Institute of Technology ($101,031)
Stevens Institute of Technology is a private research college in Hoboken, New Jersey, and established in 1870.
Popular majors at this university, which reportedly graduates 85 percent of its students, include Mechanical Engineering, Business and Computer Science.
13. Johns Hopkins University ($101,157)
The Johns Hopkins University is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, founded in 1876.
Notable alumni from this prestigious place of higher education include former Mayor of New York City Mike Bloomberg, 28th U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and philosopher John Dewey.
12. Worcester Polytechnic Institute ($101,878)
Worcester Polytechnic Institute is a private research university in Massachusetts with a focus on the technical arts and applied sciences.
The college states on its site: "WPI's graduates receive some of the highest starting salaries of their peers, attend prestigious graduate schools, and ascend to leadership roles and high-income brackets over their lives."
11. Brown University ($102, 135)
Established in 1764, Brown is an elite private Ivy League research college based in Providence, Rhode Island.
Popular majors to take at this mid-sized educational institution, where 96 percent of students reportedly graduate, include Computer Science, Biology and Economics.
10. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute ($102, 960)
RPI is a highly rated, mid-sizes private college located in Troy, New York in the Albany Area.
Popular majors at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute include Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, and Chemical Engineering and 85 percent of students reportedly graduate.
9. Cornell University ($103,441)
Cornell University is a large and extremely prestigious private college in Ithaca, New York, founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White.
Notable alumni from Cornell include Former Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Ruth Bader Ginsburg, comedian Bill Maher and novelist Professor Toni Morrison.
8. Lehigh University ($103,864)
Founded in 1865, Lehigh is a private research college based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Popular majors at Lehigh, which reportedly graduates approximately 90 percent of students, include Finance, Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science.
7. Dartmouth College ($106,212)
Established in 1769, Dartmouth is an elite private East Coast Ivy League research university located in Hanover, New Hampshire.
Accepting approximately just 4,400 undergraduate students, admission at the institution, where 96 percent reportedly graduate, is highly competitive.
6. Yale University ($106,414)
Yale is a private Ivy League university and liberal arts college situated in New Haven, Connecticut.
The most popular majors take at this prestigious educational establishment include Economics, Political Science and Government and History.
5. Duke University ($106,935)
Founded in 1838, Duke University is a private research college that moved to Durham, North Carolina in 1892.
Notable alumni from this elite mid-size institution include billionaire businessman David Rubenstein, U.S. Senator Rand Paul and American philanthropist Melinda French Gates.
4. University of Pennsylvania ($107,275)
Establised in 1740 by Benjamin Frankli, the University of Pennsylvania is an elite Ivy League college in Philadelphia with a tradition of translating knowledge into social-minded action.
Popular majors at this educational institution that reportedly graduates 96 percent of its students include finance, management sciences and information systems, and philosophy.
3. Princeton University ($107,833)
Founded in 1746, Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university that is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution.
Popular majors at the mid-sized institution based in New Jersey include computer science, economics and public policy analysis.
2. Harvard University ($108,086)
Harvard University is a private Ivy League college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, widely considered among the world's most distinguished.
Among Harvard's most famous former students are 35th President of the United States John F. Kennedy, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and American astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.
1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology ($108,900)
Founded in 1861, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is one of the planet's most prestigious educational establishments.
Some of this private college's most notable alumni include former U.N Secretary-General Kofi Annan, ex-prime minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu and second man on the Moon Buzz Aldrin.
