The mid-career salaries of Occidental College alumni are among the top in the nation, according to the most recent PayScale Salary Survey.
Occidental graduates rank No. 6 among liberal arts college graduates in terms of salary potential and No. 17 among all U.S. colleges and universities, according to the 2016-17 PayScale survey, released Tuesday.
The survey found that Oxy grads have a mid-career average salary of $117,000 (defined as at least 10 years of experience in their career or field) and an early-career median salary of $49,200 (defined as five years or less in their field). The typical mid-career employee is 44 years old and has 15 years of experience.
"Many of the most famous private liberal arts schools in the country also produce alumni with some of the highest salaries in the country," the report found. "Colgate University, Swarthmore College, Williams College, Occidental College, Carleton College and Pomona College are excellent examples of liberal arts colleges that don't just have amazing academic opportunities, but prepare students well for successful careers."
"While we believe that the benefits of an Oxy liberal arts education extend far beyond purely economic returns, we’re glad once again to have confirmation that an Oxy degree is a good investment," said Vincent Cuseo, Occidental’s vice president of enrollment.
The data used to calculate the salary information came from 1.4 million people who took the PayScale Salary Survey and disclosed where they received their bachelor's degrees. The average sample size for the 983 undergraduate schools included in the survey is 325 profiles.
Last year, the Brookings Institute ranked Occidental No. 12 among liberal arts colleges in mid-career earnings of the typical graduate, based on an effort to quantify college "value-added" — the difference between alumni outcomes such as salaries and outcomes predicted by a student’s characteristics and the type of institution.
