New Survey Ranks Schools by Best-Paid Graduates

New School graduates make an average of  $42,100 as their starting salary, and $78,200 by mid-career, according to PayScale.com’s 2013-2014 college salary report.
While these statistics are an improvement from previous years, they still lag behind other New York-based universities.

In PayScale’s list of best colleges, which ranks 1,016 schools by how much money their graduates make, the New School ranked number 341. NYU ranked 74^th, Pace University ranked 223^rd, and Fashion Institute of Technology ranked 261^st. The national average starting salary for a college graduate from the Class of 2013 is $44,928 – almost $3,000 above the New School’s average – according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

Despite the attention PayScale has garnered, its statistics might not be all that accurate.

“The problem is, they’re based on self-reported data with small sample sizes,” says Zac Bissonnette, the author of “Debt-Free U” and “How to be Richer, Smarter, and Better Looking Than Your Parents.”

The study also excluded any employees who possessed degrees higher than a bachelor’s degree and “self-employed, project-based, and contract employees are not included [in the study],” the report says. “For example, project-based graphic designers and architects, and nearly all small business owners and novelists, are not included.”

These criteria eliminate a large portion of graduates, like Leandra Medine, a recent New School graduate who just released her first book and was listed on Forbes’ “Top 30 Under 30” list last year.

The school’s low ranking could have to do with the fact that New School students generally value freethinking and creativity more than making money, some experts say.

“These schools that attract a lot of artists, musicians, and would-be philosophers come out bad in the rankings,” Bissonnette says. “A school that’s going to attract a high number of students that are not overly focused on how much money they will make is going to do poorly.”

But some new graduates who are getting ready to enter the job market regret that their degree wasn’t more lucrative. Brandice Taylor-Davis, a recent graduate, told the Free Press that her New School diploma hasn’t helped her employment prospects.

“So far my degree hasn’t helped in the job search, and I do wonder what my prospects may have been if I had gone to NYU or some other prestigious institution,” she says. “I did go to career services, but at the time all they could offer was resume help and interview skill building – two things I didn’t need. What I do need are connections.”

But Catherine Gobel, a former New School student who now works as the Transfer Enrollment Coordinator in the Lang Admissions office, says that her experience at the New School helped prepare her for employment.

“I have heard a lot of students within the New School complain about the lack of organization or advising they [received] throughout their college career,” she says. “My own experience navigating these issues has helped me to develop a certain drive and ability to tackle an issue head-on.”

Many New School professors say they aren’t concerned with PayScale’s statistics, which they believe don’t prioritize money-making skills in their classrooms.

“I’m not training [students], first and foremost, to be successful workers. It’s not that we don’t train you, it’s that we don’t emphasize that,” says Soyoung Yoon, the New School’s Assistant Professor of Visual Arts, adding that she disagrees with the entire PayScale rating system in general. “The assumption that salary could be the value of education… I think it’s really problematic.”