With regularity, various groups issue reports on the colleges whose graduates earn the highest postgraduation salaries. Typically, those are colleges that are among the most competitive in admissions. The Obama administration's College Scorecard, while not ranking colleges, includes a postgraduation earnings figure that many others have used to compare colleges. Harvard University graduates, per the federal database, are earning on average $87,200 10 years after entering college, while the figure of nearby University of Massachusetts at Boston is just under $46,000.
Such data result in countless clickbait articles such as "The Best Five Colleges to Attend if You Want to Be a Millionaire." (Spoiler alert: Harvard is on the list, UMass Boston is not.) But there is another category of popular article on colleges and success in life that might be summarized by this headline: "Forget Harvard and Stanford. It Really Doesn’t Matter Where You Go to College."
Skeptics of the Ivy-or-bust articles (and the underlying research) have long pointed out that the colleges on the top of the earnings list are those that enroll students who are, on average, well prepared for college, come from wealthier than average families and have many advantages that students elsewhere lack. And skeptics of the "go anywhere" articles point to the apparent success of graduates of elite colleges. Is the earnings payoff the result of the most competitive colleges really offering the best education, or of their having the good fortune of educating students who are likely to succeed? Or is it some combination?
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/08/22/study-finds-graduates-most-selective-colleges-enjoy-earnings-payoff