Tech Grads Rank 5th Nationally in Starting Salaries

An interesting twist on college rankings these days comes from a new report on which college degrees bring in the most money for graduates.

The complete report--and there's a lot of interesting aspects to it--is here.

Virginia Tech, with an average starting salary of $51,600, ranks fifth in the nation, behind Stanford, Duke, Georgia Tech, and Notre Dame. The Atlantic Coast Conference, of which Tech is a member, ranked first among all the top level of athletic conferences.

Of the 10 most popular jobs among Tech grads, four had to do with IT or computer programming. IT business analyst, civil engineer, database administrator, electrical engineer and financial analyst and were the top four.

The major that had the quickest payback for graduates--by far--was petroleum engineering.

Washington & Lee University in Lexington ranked fourth among Southern schools in salary potential with a mid-career median of $98,000. William & Mary was 10th at $96,500 and Duke was first at $113,000.

Virginia Tech also ranked 14th nationally for mid-career salaries of graduates of Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) schools. Tech graduates bring in an average mid-career salary of $91,500.

According to a study published by the website Payscale.com, The Atlantic Coast Conference was first among all the 11 conferences that constitute the NCAA FBS subdivision for most money earned by graduates in their initial jobs following graduation. The ACC also placed first among the same conferences for mid-career salaries of graduates, with an average of $90,192.

(Photo: Pamplin College of Business, Virginia Tech)