New Data: Which College Graduates Make the Most?
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Here's your Money Briefing. I'm J.R. Whalen at The Wall Street Journal in New York. The government has released data showing which graduates from which colleges make the most once they graduate. We'll ask a Wall Street Journal reporter to run the numbers. First, some money and market news you should know. Target's streak of quarterly sales gains continues. Overall sales at the retail giant rose 4.5 percent in the latest quarter. That includes substantial gains in e-commerce sales.
What new government data reveals which college graduates make the most?
The National Retail Federation says that spending is likely to continue. It expects holiday sales to rise in the 4 percent range to about $730 billion. And to meet that expected demand, Target CEO Brian Cornell says the chain will spend $50 million more in payroll this holiday season and double the number of store workers dedicated to online fulfillment and in-store same-day services. Hospitals are giving the Trump administration's new health pricing disclosure rule a chilly reception, and the industry is planning a legal challenge to block it. The rule would require hospitals to disclose the rates they negotiate with insurers for services and supplies and care provided by doctors who work for the facility.
Currently, negotiated prices are generally kept confidential and can vary widely, even within the same market. The Trump administration argues that its transparency push will bring down costs and allow consumers to shop around. for the best care. But some industry experts have said that costs could go up if hospitals demand that insurers match competitors' prices. And to many people, Thanksgiving means parades, overeating, and having to talk politics with family members. For those who dread that, toy maker Mattel says it has a solution to avert holiday family feuds. It's a nonpartisan version of the card game Uno. Instead of the traditional red and blue cards, their limited edition spin on the game has orange and purple ones.
And if a family member breaks the no politics at the table rule, a veto card with the word politics and prohibition printed on it allows players to skip over violators.
With student loan debt swelling to more than $1.5 trillion, students and parents want to know how much bang they can get for their college buck. The Wall Street Journal has compiled data released by the government that shows which college degrees are paying off instantly, which leaves students saddled with more debt than potential income after graduating. And Wall Street Journal reporter Andrea Fuller is here to discuss. So Andrea, this specific level of information hasn't been available to the public before now.
So the Obama administration released a bunch of data through what's called the college scorecard. And that had data on median earnings for people who attended a particular school. But it didn't really tell you what you would earn or how much you would borrow depending on your major. And it didn't cover graduate programs at all. So, we were really excited as journalists to have all of this data. It's really rich, allowing us to explore where are the programs where people are borrowing a lot of money and not making very much out of college, and where are you getting a good deal?
And there's a tool in the story in the Wall Street Journal, an interactive tool. What does that allow people to do?
So with that tool, you can look up your college and look up your major and see how much students who graduated recently were earning a year out of school and what their student debt level was.
What did the data tell us about graduates and what they earn in their first year out of school?
It's quite varied. A lot of it is what you would expect. Majoring in math at MIT will net you $120,000 a year right out of school. That sounds really nice. But there's a lot of variation. Majoring in writing and rhetoric at even some Ivy League schools like Columbia yield pretty low salaries.
There was some surprising data about Ivy League schools coming out of this information.
I think it really varies. Right out of school, it seems like across the board, the top programs in terms of debt to income ratios being low were computer science programs at elite schools.
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