Party Schools: Lots of Fun, but Little Pay

Posted by: Louis Lavelle on October 01

Everybody enjoys Princeton Review’s “Top 20 Party Schools” list. If you went to one of these schools, it brings back fond memories of drunken debauchery, and if you didn’t, well, it probably triggers feelings of superiority.

From PayScale comes a study that suggests that graduates of top party schools pay a steep price for all that fun. For its 2008 College Salary Report, PayScale took Princeton Review’s 2008 list and for each school calculated the average pay that graduates with bachelor’s degrees report after 3 three years in the workforce and after 15 years. (The data comes from the grads themselves, who report their salaries when they use PayScale’s online salary tools.) The numbers are a real eye-opener.

Methodology Annual pay for Bachelors graduates without higher degrees. Typical starting graduates have 3 years of experience; mid-career have 15.5 years. See full methodology for more.

For comparison, check out what grads of Ivy League schools are making:

Methodology Annual pay for Bachelors graduates without higher degrees. Typical starting graduates have 3 years of experience; mid-career have 15.5 years. See full methodology for more.

Kind of a steep price to pay for a few years of fun, isn't it? Especially when you consider that at the 15-year mark you still have another 30 years to go before retirement. The $51,000 difference between a graduate of Florida State and a graduate of Dartmouth (for example) turns into a whopping $1.5 million over the next 30 years, so probably close to $2 million over the course of someone's entire career.

Two million....it's something to think about.