Issue date: 10/3/08 Section: News

Penn graduates make a hefty salary - but not as much as their counterparts at Harvard and Princeton universities, according to a recent study.

The online global compensation firm PayScale conducted a study earlier this summer that compared the incomes of graduates from the Ivy League schools. Penn ranked third in entry-level salary - a person with an average of three years work experience - with $60,900 and fifth in mid-level salary - average 15 years experience - with $120,000.

Princeton led the starting-level median income pack with $66,500, followed by Harvard with $63,400. The Ivy with the highest mid-career median salary, at $134,000, was Dartmouth College, followed by Princeton, Yale, Harvard and Penn.

Brown and Columbia took the bottom spots in both lowest entry and mid-level salaries.

The results were part of a larger year-long study that surveyed 1.2 million full-time employed bachelor's degree holders from more than 300 schools across the country.

The statistics confirm a broader trend showing that where students go to college impacts how much money they eventually make. Both the starting and mid-level paychecks of Ivy League alumni are a third higher than those of liberal-arts college graduates.

Some at Penn expressed skepticism about the accuracy of the survey, as the methodology did not disclose the numbers of respondents for each school, leaving open the possibility that small numbers of high-paying respondents could skew a school's standing.

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