[andrewmcwatters]

No, I mean the actual starting salaries based on employment data from universities themselves tell us there’s only a marginal difference in those who graduate between the institutions.

If you look at the degrees themselves as a form of capital investment, Ivy League schools don’t translate into “paying off,” as it were.

[whimsicalism]

> No, I mean the actual starting salaries based on employment data from universities themselves tell us there’s only a marginal difference in those who graduate between the institutions.

Not only is that not true, but Harvard new grads make substantially more than the average BA holder, including people who are 2 decades into their career.

[hailwren]

Yes, and pairwise multivariate comparisons make the gap even larger. (i.e. considering two engineering students or two visual arts students etc)

[jcheng]

Here’s one source that says the difference is significant, to put it mildly. Do you have a better source you can cite?

https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/school/?166027-Harvard-Unive...

https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/school/?240444-University-of...

Edit: Actually the third state school I looked up is not far off! https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/school/?236948-University-of...

[desert_boi]

Picking "Public Ivyies" is stacking the deck a bit, no? My "third tier" school has a median of about half of what Harvard does.

https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/school/?142115-Boise-State-U...

[andrewmcwatters]

What are you talking about? Those are distributions; and they swing just as wildly as the broader US workforce. These people aren't making 250k out of the door, nor mid-career. It's just not impressive.