Ivy League Education - Difference in Salary?

zmansc, ASN, RN · Feb 10, 2015

Opinion: I doubt you would see a difference in monetary compensation based on either degree. I have no facts to back this up. I know there are studies that show the average salary for grads at different schools, and of course more prestigious schools have higher salaries, but I don't believe this is always the case in all careers.

I think in many cases this is because more prestigious schools tend to have a different mix of graduates than other schools, and so their mix is more valuable as a group, but the chemical engineer from each school makes the same, and so does the NP. Another aspect that may affect the starting salary is aspects of the job (geographic region, specialty, etc.) more than school name.

In many careers even the new graduate salaries are not affected by the name of the university on the diploma. Also, if your asking will a DNP get you an increased salary from a provider group, I have not seen provider groups wanting DNP graduates yet, so they are not paying extra for them (again, in my experience only). If/when that changes, you might see a change, but I would not hold my breath for that.

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Feb 10, 2015

Nursing is not like business, law or finance. Attorneys and investment bankers need degrees from top-ranked schools in order to see doors open, but nurse practitioners who graduated from unranked regional state universities can carve out wildly successful careers.

In the nursing profession, an Ivy League graduate nursing education will not boost much other than your student loan debt level.

Jules A, MSN · Feb 10, 2015

Although I personally would shy away from the well known not so well respected online-degrees that we all see advertised on late night television my thoughts are that having an Ivy League pedigree might only be valuable if you and another applicant with identical experience were vying for the same position which is unlikely to happen. The thing I can say about graduates from a fancy aka expensive college/teaching hospital in my area is if they are sucked into working for that institution because "it looks great on my resume" their pay is lousy. Years ago a friend of mine who had the exact same years of experience in the same specialty as I did but $75,000 more student debt thanks to her high brow school was making $8 an hour less as a floor nurse at her Alma mater than I was at a comparable well respected teaching hospital. To me that is just rude.

caliotter3 · Feb 10, 2015

I believe any difference in salary would depend upon your ability to talk up your education as a selling point.

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Feb 10, 2015

The thing I can say about graduates from a fancy aka expensive college/teaching hospital in my area is if they are sucked into working for that institution because "it looks great on my resume" their pay is lousy. Years ago a friend of mine who had the exact same years of experience in the same specialty as I did but $75,000 more student debt thanks to her high brow school was making $8 an hour less as a floor nurse at her Alma mater than I was at a comparable well respected teaching hospital. To me that is just rude.

Let me guess...the friend is an alumnus of prestigious, ultra-expensive John Hopkins?

Advanced Practice Columnist / Guide · Feb 12, 2015

For nurse practitioners, there are advantages to attending a well recognized name. For one, you will likely be sitting across the room with physicians scrutinizing your resume during your job interview. Physicians respond favorably to schools they recognize (i.e., that's where they trained, they know someone in the school, etc).

However, I'm not sure it has much bearing on salary. I work in a hospital where the pay scale is predetermined based on experience that was agreed upon via a contract with the union (yes! even for nurse practitioners). Of 16 of us, 1/3 went to Ivy League (Columbia, Penn), the rest went to a "Top 5 ranked by US News non Ivy-League" program, and here I am a graduate of a locally known state university in a poor midwestern city. I happen to make one of the highest hourly pay in the group - but that's because I happen to be one of the oldest and most experienced of the bunch.