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Who'd Win March Madness Based on Salary?
payscale.com — If 2008 NCAA tournament scores were determined by the median salary of its graduates, this is how the March Madness brackets would shake out.
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I've never felt so poor
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These aren't average salaries the first year after graduating, are they?
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This has to be average salary of all graduates, not just new grads.
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FYI - These are the median salaries. The midpoint. Not the mean or average.
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No - reading TFA you'll see that the salaries are NOT for new graduates nor are they they median for all alumni. It's the median salary of users of PayScale who are 5 to 15 years into their careers. So we're talking about people from about 28 to 38.
http://blogs.payscale.com/ask_dr_salary/2008/03/nc ... -
From the site: "The calculation we used is simple:
* Identify the employees in our database who attended each university in the NCAA Men's bracket
* Select those who are 5 to 15 years into their careers: this is about 30 to 40 years old
* Calculate the median annual total cash compensation for the selected employees
Annual total cash compensation includes the base salary/wage, bonus, profit sharing, commission, and tips that an employee earns in a year at one job. It does not include equity compensation (e.g., stock options) or non-cash benefits (e.g., health insurance).
Obviously, we are not counting the salaries (or lack thereof) of alumni who are not employed. We also do not include self-employed graduates, like consultants, small business owners, and freelance writers. "
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ouch, i want a raise
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if memory serves, George Mason has the nation's highest tuition...and they made the Final Four in '06.
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Brilliant. though does this include / exclude grad schools?
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"We also did not draw a distinction between undergraduate and graduate and professional school graduates. This can cause the median to be a bit higher for universities with medical, business and law schools, and somewhat lower for schools with graduate teaching and Ph.D. programs"
From article on methodology: http://blogs.payscale.com/ask_dr_salary/2008/03/nc ...
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does it count if you failed out of school? What about if you transferred, how are the calculations done?
*****, I'm still poor.. -
I would like to see that same chart with a control for average family salary before entrance. Big endowment universities like Duke and Stanford always have a huge salary advantage because many of their students are guaranteed high paying jobs by daddy before they ever think about going to college.
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This is so not true, though I'm sure these schools don't do much to debunk this myth. I went to Harvard as an undergrad and the overwhelming majority of students there are middle class. My family was barely earning $100K when I went, and I barely qualified for financial aid (from the school itself) because there were so many more students in need.
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I come from a family of similar circumstances, zoinnk - with brothers who attended both Harvard and Columbia. Full disclosure, I attended UNC. Unfortunately, for your sake, you are a victim of anecdotal persuasions. Numerous studies have shown the advantages of family income in getting access to the best colleges in the country, including this particularly insightful Op-Ed in the New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/24/opinion/24karabe
I wish it were shocking to me that someone educated at Harvard believed that the "overwhelming majority of students there are middle class". May I ask, what is your concept of middle-class? The median US Income is around $48,000. For married households that number jumps to $69,000. The number is shockingly under $30,000 for unmarried households (think single parents). Meanwhile, by Harvard's own admission, they have handed grants out to families making over $160,000 a year. Their average recipient of needs-based aid comes from a family income of $90,000 a year. Oh yeah, "barely earning $100K" puts you comfortably in the upper middle class - the top 20% of America. And you expected financial aid?
There is no question that these institutions cater to the wealthy, which is why they are nobly trying to take steps to fix this issue. But nothing that these institutions can do will fix the problem that the poorest individuals are unqualified for a Harvard education because of poor quality educations in the 18 years proceeding college. This is not Harvard, or any other University's fault.
However, to state that income plays little to no role in attending these Universities is patently false.
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To add to that, the perception that a school is elite will draw in a class of more intellectual and/or affluent students who will turn around and become successful because the job market values them more. Although this country has a very high secondary and post graduate educational systems, degrees from certain places get you further. I'm also certain that cost of living was not included in this study.
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That's what I've been telling my dad this whole time! Thanks concertmaps! (cough...cough....sarcasm)
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I apologize for my over dramatization. Daddy is not going to give you a job. But over your lifetime, and mine as well - coming from an upper middle class family, I knew that it would require me seriously screwing things up not to succeed. I can't say that my parents could give me a posh $100K job a year right out of school, but would I really have a problem landing that job around the corner when the boss of that company goes to church I went to, or I grew up as friends with the owners son/daughter?
Privilege sneaks in. It is not obvious, but that does not make it earned.
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Be happy for them.
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Step 1: Go to Stanford
Step 2: Nothing
Step 3: PROFIT!!! -
be nice if it could somehow be adjusted for Cost of Living differences (Stanford beats on Cornell.. but Stanford grads who remain in Cali will likely have a higher COL)
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I guess money does grow on Trees
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Why don't you just say Stanford >* you bastard
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thats awesome!! Except Carolina should win this one too
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which Carolina would that be? South Carolina? East? Maybe the other 14 schools in North Carolina with a UNC tag? Oh i think you mean UNC-Chapel Hill. And obviously they shouldn't win. Get the ***** over it.
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Well for public universities, the best value for your money is UNC.
http://content.kiplinger.com/tools/colleges/pubcol ...
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GO HEELS!
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Stanford FTW! Go Cardinal!
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Nice. I went to one of the lowest-paying schools (West Virginia).
Good thing I went to London for grad school! -
How about adjusting for the area of the country they are in. Things are cheaper down south where alot of these schools are from. $50K-$60K down here could be closer to $100K in other areas.
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Agreed, I think the 96,800 coming out of Duke I think is the cost of living adjusted winner assuming any sizable fraction of grads make their careers in the nearest big metro areas, as living in Chicago, or much of anywhere in Cali is probably at least 50% and maybe as much as 100% more expensive than Raleigh/Durham.
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Very true, I moved from a place where you can get a 1 bedroom apartment for about 300 a month to Atlanta where that will run you 600+ a month and that is still pretty cheap compared to a lot of places in the country like california.
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I would have bet my salary that Duke would have won. I guess they don't figure trust fund into the figure...
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If this is supposed to be MEDIAN starting salaries for freshly minted undergrads, I got news for you, it's nowhere close to reality, regardless of what market you're working in...i have students working for me from many of these universities and their starting salaries aren't close to those reported. Keep in mind most people leaving school are not graduating with highly coveted engineering or accounting degrees...or working for Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey, E&Y etc. There's plenty of liberal arts graduates and they ain't making anything remotely close to the numbers on this list....So if you're getting ready to graduate and your expectations are aligned with those in the brackets, i'd reset them very quickly.
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Ok...it probably helps to read the fine print...on the website
"The calculation we used is simple:
Identify the employees in our database who attended each university in the NCAA Men's bracket
Select those who are 5 to 15 years into their careers: this is about 30 to 40 years old
Calculate the median annual total cash compensation for the selected employees"
This seems a bit more logical to me now.
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Looks like Duke can finally make a Final Four for once
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Siena College is screwed in this bracket. No graduate school and the average students is from upstate New York where $60k is a high salary.
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They should do another one with only the sarlaries of the basketball players after graduation. UNC would be up there.
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My school, W. Kentucky, is 200 bucks from being in last place. :P
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Now I know I can safely go to my reunion and not be ashamed.
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Wonder if that includes professional athletes salaries.
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It's a really cool chart and everything, but wouldn't a simple list of schools ranked from 1 to 64 be easier to understand?
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Personally I think this is a bit misleading. I'm imagine the data is correct but salary does not necessarily show what a person can afford. The cost of living varies so much across the country that giving absolute numbers just doesn't show the whole picture. Since most college grads tend to stay near the college (top tier may be a little more diverse) the above graph is distorted.
Looking at bestplaces.net cost of living calculator, L.A. has twice the overall cost of living as Charleston. -
Yes, regionality has a lot to do with it. 4 out of my 5 best friends at Stanford all stayed to work in Silicon Valley, where salaries are much higher than the national average. They may make six figures, but my house in Upstate New York is twice the size of anything they can afford.
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I bet if you did this by the money spent on the basketball teams it would be a lot closer to the real results.
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It'd be interesting to see a comparion with some of the foreign Unis, i'd like to see where Imperial College, Oxford and Cambridge would come in that listing.
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My school is probably in the salary NIT.
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It would be interesting to see another chart ranking the schools by how much it costs it attend 4 years of undergrad. I'd bet Stanford would still come out on top.
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This is the chart version of the "It's alright! It's OK! You'll all work for us someday!" chant.
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It disappoints me that the Defending national champs aren't on the bracket at all
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Who would win based on average salary? Is Hillary Clinton's new math starting to catch on?
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too bad they don't factor in location/cost of living. of course CA schools will be higher salaries b/c a 1000sq/ft house = $500,000
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I feel like this is just blatantly incorrect... There is no way the graduates from these schools earn an average of that much money coming out of school... especially in our economy
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THESE ARE NOT GRADUATION SALARIES!!
The payscale website does specify how the the very crude salary estimates were determined.
"The calculation we used is simple:
Identify the employees in our database who attended each university in the NCAA Men's bracket
Select those who are 5 to 15 years into their careers: this is about 30 to 40 years old
Calculate the median annual total cash compensation for the selected employees"-
So what is the point, if its not adjusted for location?
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The point is that graduating from a given university does not obligate one to work for, or near, said university.
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Certainly, geography does play a role as some universities graduate students more apt to relocate in high cost markets (where there are better jobs and job opportunities) than others. For example, I would guess (AND THIS IS JUST A GUESS) a student who graduates from Western Kentucky is more likely to stay in Kentucky than a student that graduates from Stanford. (My guess is based on the fact that Stanford grads are probably in higher demand than Western Kentucky grads and those jobs may be in higher cost markets which could be outside of the state; the Stanford student body probably has a larger distribution of out of state students than Western Kentucky and those out of state students have already demonstrated a willingness to live outside of their home state for an education so why not for a higher paying job; and California has a higher cost of living which carries a higher salary.)
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This is slightly interesting - but obviously if the game were based on median salaries the seeding would be irrelevant... and... the entire tournament would be irrelevant... since the winner is always going to be the same regardless of how you shuffle around the tournament.
The greater-than property is transitive. Obviously the team with the greatest median salary will always win. The only influence the seeding has on this is which non-winners get knocked out when. -
Here's a bracket based on Congressional Net Worth: http://media.sunlightfoundation.com/asset_madness_ ...
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This bracket predicts the Final Four based on each University's Lobbying expenses: http://www.capitaleye.org/inside.asp?ID=340
see also: http://digg.com/politics/Asset_Madness_Congression ... -
I'm pretty sure this is median overall not starting so it would take into account all graduates but just keep in mind its probably pretty hard to get accurate data from the people who make a lot of money later on in their careers / businesses, also ever school has people who do majors that don't pay well which balances out the higher paying ones.
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Stanford should be disqualified because of that annoying tree:
http://digg.com/odd_stuff/Strange_College_Mascots -
i'm already over the loss cuz its ALL RIGHT NOW
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DC grads make a lot. And look at the WCC schools. Wow.
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this might be the only way a 16 seed makes the elite eight
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I wish I went to Stanford!
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