New Metric for Colleges: Graduates' salaries

Week #2

Article #2

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/14/business/economy/nice-college-but-whatll-i-make-when-i-graduate.html?_r=0&hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1379116929-w6SpWQzwSsLGk9+Yy1H3Kg

1.     Category of problem: Economic

2.     Level of problem: National

3.     This article concerns: Annual rankings of universities and colleges

4.     Importance/effect on families/individuals: In this article, they show rankings of colleges and the income students make upon graduation. These rankings should concern students when applying to universities and to graduate students pursuing their master career to have an understanding of what comes ahead.

My input: In this article, two popular ranking websites have ranked colleges based on some metric, but it is hard to decide if we should follow that metric to make a decision on what colleges to apply to. Especially when colleges have so many programs to choose from and such a diverse student body. Average starting salary and hiring rate depends greatly on what degree we choose, not on the college’s general rate in one of these ranking websites. Of course, these websites help us by giving us a general idea of what that college might offer and what our future holds if we are to attend one of the best-ranked colleges. But if we are not able to attend one of the best colleges based on these websites, it does not mean that we cannot earn the same amount of money or more if we attend another college. It also says nothing of the academic merit of these colleges, and how much knowledge we can get from them And just because a website says a university is ranked as one of the best means that it is an accurate ranking, therefore we need to pay close attention to other factors when choosing the college that we want to go to instead of only going for the college that we think is the best based on salary rankings.