The gist of it: Research presented Saturday at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association finds that there is a notable earnings payoff for attending the most selective four-year colleges. When factors such as parental income, SAT scores, choice of major and many other measures are counted in, the gap is nowhere like the Harvard-UMass Boston gap. But a variety of socioeconomic and academic measures (outside the quality of instruction at elite colleges) have an impact on postgraduation wages. But it's also the case that, even controlling for all of those factors, attending a most selective college provides a payoff.
The actual study isn't linked but they claim to have controlled for the higher stats, income, etc of the students elite schools admit.
Further, the study finds significant differences in earnings at all colleges, with women earning less, and with degree program playing a major impact. As a result, the researchers are dubious of rankings of colleges by income of graduates -- including those based on data from the College Scorecard.
I've been dubious also.
The results: The results show that, after controlling for all those factors, graduates of the most competitive colleges earn (10 years after graduation) 8 percent more than graduates of very selective (but not the most competitive) colleges, 11 percent more than graduates of colleges that are competitive, and 19 percent more than graduates of colleges that are not competitive in admissions.
In other words, Ivy graduates benefit quite a bit from attending Ivies, but they are also benefiting from lots of other factors that do not necessarily come from the education they received -- since background of students seems to have a big impact on subsequent success. And while they earn more than others, the share of that total attributable to the college is not anything near the size one would think after using College Scorecard. So the "don't worry about going to an elite college" line is flawed, just as is the argument that elite colleges themselves lead to wealth, the research suggests.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/08/22/study-finds-graduates-most-selective-colleges-enjoy-earnings-payoff
Some interesting data tables there for majors and such.
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