http://finance.yahoo.com/college-education/article/110656/penn-state-tops-recruiter-rankings?mod=edu-collegeprep

Corporate budget constraints force recruiters to look at big state schools more for new hires. This helps them see more candidates for less money.

"...Big state schools Pennsylvania State University, Texas A&M University and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign were the top three picks among recruiters surveyed...."

"...The Journal asked companies to rank schools that produce the best-qualified graduates—overall and by major. Recruiters made clear they preferred big state schools over elite liberal arts schools, such as the Ivies. A number of state schools were added to recruiters' lists in the last two years, including Penn State and Arizona State University (No. 5) and Ohio State University (No. 12). ..."


There's also an interesting link expanding on a return on investment of a degree. The top ten are listed below.
1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Rank: 1
School Type: Private
City, State: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Graduation Rate (%): 94
Total Cost to Graduate ($): 189,300
30-Year Net Return for Investment ($): 1,688,000
30-Year Net Return for Graduates ($): 1,796,000
Annualized Net ROI (%): 12.6

2. California Institute of Technology (CIT)

Rank: 2
School Type: Private
City, State: Pasadena, California
Graduation Rate (%): 88
Total Cost to Graduate ($): 181,000
30-Year Net Return for Investment ($): 1,644,000
30-Year Net Return for Graduates ($): 1,868,000
Annualized Net ROI (%): 12.6

3. Harvard University

Rank: 3
School Type: Private
City, State: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Graduation Rate (%): 98
Total Cost to Graduate ($): 189,600
30-Year Net Return for Investment ($): 1,631,000
30-Year Net Return for Graduates ($): 1,664,000
Annualized Net ROI (%): 12.5

4. Harvey Mudd College

Rank: 4
School Type: Private
City, State: Claremont, California
Graduation Rate (%): 90
Total Cost to Graduate ($): 187,700
30-Year Net Return for Investment ($): 1,627,000
30-Year Net Return for Graduates ($): 1,808,000
Annualized Net ROI (%): 12.5

5. Dartmouth College

Rank: 5
School Type: Private
City, State: Hanover, New Hampshire
Graduation Rate (%): 95
Total Cost to Graduate ($): 188,400
30-Year Net Return for Investment ($): 1,587,000
30-Year Net Return for Graduates ($): 1,670,000
Annualized Net ROI (%): 12.4

6. Stanford University

Rank: 6
School Type: Private
City, State: Stanford, California
Graduation Rate (%): 94
Total Cost to Graduate ($): 191,800
30-Year Net Return for Investment ($): 1,565,000
30-Year Net Return for Graduates ($): 1,665,000
Annualized Net ROI (%): 12.3

7. Princeton University

Rank: 7
School Type: Private
City, State: Princeton, New Jersey
Graduation Rate (%): 96
Total Cost to Graduate ($): 187,700
30-Year Net Return for Investment ($): 1,517,000
30-Year Net Return for Graduates ($): 1,580,000
Annualized Net ROI (%): 12.3

8. Yale University

Rank: 8
School Type: Private
City, State: New Haven, Connecticut
Graduation Rate (%): 97
Total Cost to Graduate ($): 194,200
30-Year Net Return for Investment ($): 1,392,000
30-Year Net Return for Graduates ($): 1,435,000
Annualized Net ROI (%): 11.9

9. University of Notre Dame

Rank: 9
School Type: Private
City, State: Notre Dame, Indiana
Graduation Rate (%): 96
Total Cost to Graduate ($): 181,900
30-Year Net Return for Investment ($): 1,384,000
30-Year Net Return for Graduates ($): 1,442,000
Annualized Net ROI (%): 12.1

10. University of Pennsylvania

Rank: 10
School Type: Private
City, State: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Graduation Rate (%): 95
Total Cost to Graduate ($): 191,300
30-Year Net Return for Investment ($): 1,361,000
30-Year Net Return for Graduates ($): 1,433,000
Annualized Net ROI (%): 11.8

Click here to see a state-by-state breakdown from What's Your College Degree Worth?

Con_Alma;483686 wrote: Click here to see a state-by-state breakdown from What's Your College Degree Worth?

I am interested, but that is not a link.

TBone14;484070 wrote:I am interested, but that is not a link.

That is actual verbiage from the article. There is a link in the article where that is printed.

Awesome. Guess this basically means my college degree, since it isn't from an Ivy League type school, won't be worth anything.

darbypitcher22;484631 wrote:Awesome. Guess this basically means my college degree, since it isn't from an Ivy League type school, won't be worth anything.

That's right, now go get my dry cleaning!

darbypitcher22;484631 wrote:Awesome. Guess this basically means my college degree, since it isn't from an Ivy League type school, won't be worth anything.

That's not true at all. It means the return on investment won't be as high as one from an Ivy League.

These are interesting numbers, but I'm not sure how useful they are. I briefly skimmed the methodology, and it looks like there is a big error here.

It's not like MIT is pulling from the same pool of applicants as BFE State U. I would anticipate that smarter people will earn more money. This reflects that. But it doesn't show you whether a person with a 150 IQ and great work ethic will earn a better return at MIT than they would at BFE State U; this only shows that people at MIT earn better returns overall. That seems to be a pretty glaring flaw because we know that the talent pool isn't the same at all of these schools.

In general, for most fields, I think most people are better off going to the flagship state school and paying in-state tuition. But I do think people on either extreme (top 5-10% and bottom 5-10%) probably benefit disproportionately from going to an "elite" school.

And then there certainly are fields where the school may not make much difference (education comes to mind as a field where paying $70,000 for an elite school degree may not provide better returns than paying $6,000 for a low-end state school), with other fields where the school makes a world of difference (e.g., law, where graduates of "top 14" law schools have a HUGE leg up over graduates further down the list).

In short, I applaud these rankings and think they're a step in the right direction, but people are still going to need to do homework on their own and think about their individual situation.

I'd like to see the military institutions added into the equation.

Say an individual with an engineering degree foregoing his first first 5 years of private employment salary to fulfill his service obligations combined with his future earnings and the ration that would result.

Secondary education choice isn't entirely based on ROI and shouldn't be. However, to completely dismiss it might be a disastrous economic decision for some individuals and professions.