Harvey Mudd No. 1 on PayScale’s College Salary Report

Harvey Mudd College alumni earn the highest mid-career salaries of all U.S. college and university graduates with bachelor’s degrees only, according to PayScale’s 2017–2018 College Salary Report.

PayScale’s survey is based on mid-career salaries of alumni who pursued careers with a bachelor’s degree as their final degree. “Mid-career” is defined as 10 or more years of experience in a field.

Harvey Mudd ranked No. 1 on the bachelor’s-only list with a median mid-career salary of $155,000. Over the past five years, Harvey Mudd has held the No. 1 spot four times and the No. 2 spot once. Coming in second is Princeton University, followed by MIT, SUNY Maritime College and United States Military Academy respectively.

For the first time, PayScale issued a second ranking that includes alumni who went on to earn a graduate degree. On this all-alumni list, Harvey Mudd placed second, just behind Stanford University. Caltech, MIT and Princeton round out the all-alumni top five.

“Harvey Mudd’s curriculum was developed not to help graduates earn high salaries but to prepare them to become problem-solvers able to tackle the world’s challenges,” said Vice President for Admission and Financial Aid Thyra Briggs. “We provide a rigorous math and science education in a broader liberal arts context, which gives our students not only the skills and knowledge to solve demanding technical problems, but also the ability to communicate clearly, work in teams and think across disciplines. This combination of traits may distinguish our students from other high-level math and science graduates and make them attractive to employers and graduate schools.”

In PayScale’s 2017 College ROI Report, a separate report published each spring, Harvey Mudd ranked No. 2 for overall college return on investment, moving up one slot from last year. Prior to 2016, Harvey Mudd held the No. 1 spot in PayScale’s College ROI Report for four years straight, from 2012 to 2015.