Carnegie Mellon SCS grads are tops in salary, says nerdwallet

CMU grad here, let me chime in a few words if I may...<p>As much as I am proud to hear that Carnegie Mellon SCS grads are making the top $, it saddens me a bit to realize that our graduates are playing it too safe.<p>I don't have the exact numbers, but my guess is that the percentage of CMU grads doing startups is probably at a much lower number rate than other top tier tech schools like MIT and Stanford. As a result, while these other school's immediate graduate salary is lower than CMU, their life time salary is probably going to be higher.<p>Yes, making $100K out of college is glorious, but that novelty is going to wear off and you'll be like everybody else slaving their life away. While you still can, while the market is still hot, why not aim for something better like creating the next instagram or dropbox? What's the absolute worst that can happen if you fail? Returning to that $100K/year job?<p>Life after college is like stepping into a casino for the first time and the casino offers you a free roll. It's silly not to give it a shot if you have practically nothing to lose.

Its probably worth mentioning that one of the reasons SCS is so above others on that list is that unlike most schools in the US, at CMU CS is a separate school from engineering, and thus reports its own separate numbers. Not that the CIT (engineering) students are doing bad at #4 on <a href="http://www.nerdwallet.com/education/grad_surveys/top-salaries" rel="nofollow">http://www.nerdwallet.com/education/grad_surveys/top-salarie...</a> , but CS grads at other top schools likely would see similar numbers if they reported individually.

A friend's son was top of his class. He convinced himself to go into CMU SCS program. He was a novice programmer with barely any background. I warned him away, saying that he would find himself in unforgiving competition with people who had been programming seriously for 10 years or more and recommending that he choose a state school instead. He ignored my warnings.<p>He lasted six weeks before changing majors. It really messed him up psychologically - he's got a serious inferiority complex now. I believe that, had he chosen from any number of other schools, he would be a happy CS grad and programmer today. It is difficult to go from the top of your class to the very bottom.

After graduating from school in Canada – where nobody cares where you go to school – and moving to New York – where it's supposed to mean everything – I can't emphasize enough how much <i>this doesn't matter</i>.<p>Go where you want to be, where you can find people like you, and do your thing.

What I take away from these results on first glance is that employers tend to value an instilled work ethic, as evidenced by the (to me) surprisingly high rankings of schools like GaTech, Johns Hopkins, Harvey Mudd and CMU.

Anyone knows why Berkeley, Stanford, Harvard, etc, don't even appear? Were they not included in the study? And if so, can the study still be considered meaningful?

f<i></i>k u and all your money. I am from pakistan and only the best of the best news about u fellows make it here for us to inspire from . this is the first time i am hearing about a college called CMU. I have heard MIT, Stanford, Harvard and i believe they are the shit. U guys,, never. STart doing something for the effin world. My dad makes more money selling garments here for sure. Steve jobs was not from any of these college right? idiots. paisa and paisa. and wtf is nerd wallet. why would u go to that site also?