6 minBusiness
Forbes Ranking Finds Low-Ranked Colleges Still Deliver Six-Figure Salaries
A new Forbes ranking of 500 U.S. colleges shows that even the lowest-ranked schools produce median 10-year earnings above $100,000, far outpacing the $41,800 median for workers with only a high school diploma, though rising costs and financial pressures complicate the picture.
Graduates of even the lowest-ranked American colleges can expect to earn six-figure salaries a decade after finishing their degrees, according to a new Forbes ranking of the nation's top 500 institutions. The finding challenges the assumption that only elite universities deliver a strong return on investment.
At the top of the list, familiar names dominate. MIT, Princeton and Harvard lead the pack, with graduates expected to earn median salaries above $120,000 ten years after graduation. The University of Pennsylvania, ranked fifth, posts median 10-year earnings of $151,328. But the more striking data comes from the bottom of the ranking. Marietta College, a private liberal arts school in rural Ohio that placed 500th, reports median 10-year earnings of $105,837. Nearly every school on the list shows median earnings above $90,000.
Those figures stand in sharp contrast to the earnings of workers without a degree. The U.S. Department of Education reports that full-time workers ages 25 to 34 whose highest credential is a high school diploma earn a median of $41,800 annually. While the two datasets measure different populations and timeframes, the gap underscores the persistent earnings premium associated with a college degree, even one from a lesser-known institution.
Salary is only one factor in the college decision. Schools that consistently top rankings offer advantages that a 10-year earnings figure cannot capture, including expansive alumni networks, access to prominent faculty and research opportunities, and name recognition. But those benefits carry risks and costs of their own, particularly as colleges nationwide confront falling enrollment and mounting financial pressures.
Marietta College itself illustrates the tension. The school has faced budget shortfalls that forced it to eliminate academic programs and lay off faculty in recent years. A school's financial health was also a factor in the Forbes ranking. According to a forecast by Huron Consulting Group, 442 of the nation's 1,700 private, nonprofit four-year colleges and universities are at risk of closing or merging within the next decade.
At the same time, higher education faces growing criticism over rising tuition and whether degrees deliver enough return on investment. The average cost of college has more than doubled over the past two decades, reaching $39,406 per student per year, including books, supplies and daily living expenses, according to the Education Data Initiative. The average student now borrows more than $35,000 to pursue a bachelor's degree.
For many graduates, the payoff is not immediate. In 2015, the unemployment rate for recent college graduates surpassed that of all workers for the first time, and the gap has widened since. The unemployment rate among recent college graduates currently sits at 5.7%, compared with 4.1% for all workers.
Public confidence in the value of a college education has fallen alongside those concerns. In 2010, about 75% of Americans said college was «very important.» A decade and a half later, that figure has dropped to a record low of 35%, according to Gallup.
The skepticism extends beyond students and parents. Some of the country's most prominent business leaders have questioned whether a traditional degree remains the best path to a successful career. Mark Zuckerberg, who dropped out of Harvard to launch Facebook, now Meta, has said college remains valuable for building relationships but questioned whether higher education adequately prepares young people for the modern workforce. «I'm not sure that college is preparing people for the jobs that they need to have today,» Zuckerberg said in an interview with podcaster Theo Von last year, adding that student debt issues are «really big» and that a «reckoning» is coming.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, a Tufts University and Harvard Business School graduate, has similarly argued that elite education is not necessarily a predictor of success on the job. «I don't think necessarily because you go to an Ivy League school or have great grades it means you're going to be a great worker or great person,» Dimon said in 2024, adding that skills are «far more important» than a degree for many jobs.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, a University of Southern California alumnus, has gone further, arguing that a college degree is not a prerequisite for creating value. «Everybody thinks that if you don't have a college degree, you can't be successful in the United States, and it's not true,» he told NBC.
For students weighing their options, the Forbes data offers a nuanced message: the earnings premium from a college degree remains substantial even at institutions far from the Ivy League, but the decision involves trade-offs that a single salary figure cannot resolve.
