Getting your bachelor’s degree will, in most cases, help you earn more.
In 2022, the median earnings of workers ages 25 to 34 with bachelor’s degrees were nearly 60% higher than those in the same age group who only had a high school diploma, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Holding a degree from certain schools may pay off even more. The median earnings of graduates from Massachusetts Institute of Technology are roughly $114,000 higher than the earnings of workers with only a high school diploma in Massachusetts, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The publication recently ranked U.S. colleges that have the largest impact on graduates’ salary outcomes, and MIT came in at No. 1.
To rank how much each school affects graduates’ salaries, WSJ considered each school’s “salary impact score” and the estimated time it would take graduates to pay off debt, based on the average net price, what students pay after aid and scholarships. To determine the “salary impact score,” the publication estimated what students could expect to earn regardless of the college they attended, compared with salary outcomes at each specific school.
