Top graduate universities
Whether you are earning a master's degree, MBA, JD or PhD, going to graduate school requires a lot of time, effort and money. And no matter how much you may love to learn, you most likely want the time you spend in graduate school to pay off, monetarily, by helping you get into the career path of your dreams. PayScale's College Salary Report has the data you need to help you choose a graduate school that has a proven track record of producing alumni whose salaries justify their investment in education.
Not surprisingly, many of the most famous law schools rank highly on PayScale's College Salary Report. However, one of the highest median mid-career salaries comes from graduates of a law school that many people may never have heard of. Emory Law School in Atlanta, Georgia, is often among the number one graduate program on our list of the graduate programs with the highest salary potential, beating more well-known law schools like Harvard Law and Georgetown. Several California law schools rank very highly too - UCLA, USC, UC Berkeley, Pepperdine and Santa Clara University all have law schools that rank well.
It should be noted that because most top-tier law firms have standard salary practices, especially for entry-level law positions, most of PayScale's data comes from law alumni who work at second-tier or public law firms.
If you want an immediate return on investment for a graduate degree, you should set your sights on getting an MBA from a big-name business school. Nine out of the 10 graduate programs with the highest early career salaries are top-tier business schools - and many have strong ties to STEM programs.
The Sloane School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business comes are perennially at or near the top of the list. It's not doubt that students at these schools benefit from strong computer science and technology programs, and probably get some of these high salaries from the top tech companies, both large and small, in the nation.
