The PayScale College Salary Report was recently released, and once again, Claremont McKenna College ranks in the top tier of colleges and universities nationwide. According to the report, graduates of Claremont McKenna College rank second for starting median salary in the liberal arts category. Graduates responding to the survey with five years or less experience reported a median salary of $58,700. CMC graduates with 10 years of experience or more reported a mid-career median salary of $104,000, ranking 10th among all liberal arts colleges and in the top seven percent of all colleges and universities. Both starting salary and mid-career salary showed a modest increase from 2009.
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"Our graduates continue to be well-prepared for employment in a variety of industries ranging from finance and accounting to government service to education and the non-profit sector," said CMC President Pamela Gann. "In today's competitive workplace, our graduates are employed at a rate over twice that of the national average, and are earning starting salaries significantly higher than average."
Among the 999 college and universities included in the report, CMC ranked 16th for median starting salaries, below top engineering schools like Caltech, Harvey Mudd, MIT, and Stanford, but above other elite and Ivy League schools such as Johns Hopkins, Cornell, Harvard, Duke, Columbia, Dartmouth, Rice, UC Berkeley, Yale, Georgetown, Swarthmore, Amherst, and Williams. Additionally, CMC ranks fifth in both starting and mid-career pay among all California colleges and universities included in the survey.
Based on the PayScale data, the average of the median starting salaries for all colleges in the survey was $42,003. Comparatively, CMC graduates' median starting salary is 40 percent higher than the survey average. Our mid-career graduates rated equally well with a median salary of $104,000, 42 percent greater than the survey's mid-career average of $73,097.
"CMC students are leaving this institution with knowledge and experience that provide high value in today's marketplace," states Gann. "A CMC education provides a good return on investment for our students, and the PayScale data supports this premise."
PayScale describes their methodology for the report, which gathers data from an employee survey, and excludes graduates with advanced degrees as well as self-employed individuals. Because of these guidelines, a high number of CMC graduates would be excluded from the data once they pursue an advanced degree.
CMC's Career Service Center conducts a survey of graduates each year regarding their post-graduation plans. For the Class of 2010, 61 percent have accepted employment offers or are pursuing full-time employment. Eleven percent will be attending graduate or professional school, 8 percent will be working through an internship or part-time job, and 6 percent have received national awards or fellowships.