South Dakota Mining Students Earning More Than Harvard Graduates
Via Bruce Oksol, get a load of this. Students at the South Dakota School of Mines (which trains people to work in the fossil fuel industry, among others) are earning more after graduation than Harvard students.
Harvard University’s graduates are earning less than those from the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology after a decade-long commodity bull market created shortages of workers as well as minerals.
Those leaving the [South Dakota] college of 2,300 students this year got paid a median salary of $56,700, according to PayScale Inc., which tracks employee compensation data from surveys. At Harvard, where tuition fees are almost four times higher, they got $54,100.
Those scheduled to leave the campus in Rapid City, South Dakota, in May are already getting offers, at a time when about one in 10 recent U.S. college graduates is out of work.
I’ve long argued that one of the few bright spots in the American economy has been energy production. This is another data point to support that contention.
It’s also a commentary on the state of higher education – with its bloated tuition and fees and increasingly less valuable degrees – and the wisdom of choosing a degree path that trains you with practical skills for a specific industry rather than the generalized education most Americans are sold on.