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VCU Grads Lag in Earning Power

If maximizing earning power is your aim, then Washington and Lee University is the Virginia college you want to attend -- assuming you can afford the pricey private-school tuition! The liberal arts college in Lexington has the highest salary of seven Virginia institutions of higher education taking part in a study conducted by compensation company PayScale Inc.

Washington and Lee grads had the highest average starting salary, $53,600, of any of the six and the highest average mid-career salary, $104,000 -- edging out the University of Virginia .

Among local institutions surveyed, University of Richmond grads earned $48,600 to start and reached $94,600 by mid-career. Randolph Macon College alumni averaged $42,600 for starting salaries, while rising to $83,600 by mid-career. Bringing up the rear was Richmond's own Virginia Commonwealth University , with a starting $42,000 and the lowest mid-career salary, $68,400.

Ivy League grads rake in the most money, outperforming their non-Ivy peers by 32 percent. Alec Depcrynksi has the story over at Richmond BizSense .

Here's what I find interesting about the numbers in Depcrynski's story: While the top three performing schools showed a 95 percent increase between starting salary and mid-career salary, VCU showed only a 63 percent increase. In other words, not only are starting salaries for VCU grads the lowest of the seven, their wage-earning capacity increases at a slower rate.

To VCU critics, those numbers will confirm that VCU is a third-rate institution. But the numbers need to be studied more closely before definitive conclusions can be reached. First, does VCU have a large percentage of students who graduate from programs, like social work, that have inherently lower salary prospects? Second, this is a snapshot. What is VCU's performance over time? Are starting salaries closing the gap with the other schools? If they are, that's a sign that VCU is gaining ground. But the numbers won't be reflected in the "mid-career" numbers for roughly 20 years.