Starting six-figure salaries rare, even for Wharton

Although Wharton graduates are often reputed to receive high salaries shortly after leaving school, data shows that this is not actually the case.

Across a number of years, the data for graduates from Wharton's Bachelor of Science program doesn't usually change much. For the undergraduate class of 2008, the mean salary was $61,001 while the range was from $22,000 to $110,000, according to Career Services' Career Plans Survey Report.

The distribution is a bell-shaped curve, with a bulk of students in the middle and very few in the two ends, explained Career Services director Patricia Rose.

Although the official numbers for the recently-graduated class of 2009 are not out yet, Rose said around 80 percent of the students are "clumped between $40,000 and $80,000," adding, "which I think is good - it isn't as if we're saying, 'Oh, this is the average, but there are all these people earning $100,000 and $30,000 and only a few getting $60,000.'"

While the range of the data is sizable, there are only a handful of students at the two ends. Jobs at the high end tend to be in hedge funds, technology and other financial services, while those at the low end tend to be in advertising, government and non-profit, according to Career Services Senior Associate Director Barbara Hewitt.

Students have been concentrated in the middle for many years because most Wharton students have similar career goals and consequently, gravitate toward jobs in similar fields, Rose explained.

Hewitt also noted that places that regularly hire college graduates have "pretty standard salaries."

Career Services Associate Director David Ross observed that jobs are more complex, "more than just the reported salaries." He said jobs in the financial industry often pay an annual bonus, depending on the performance of that particular industry, company and employee, and "such numbers are not reported in the base statistics."

Hewitt also added that quality of life plays another big role in a person's career.

"Investment bankers work for an ungodly number of hours," she said, explaining that, on the other hand, a person who earns a $45,000 annual salary - significantly less than that of an investment banker, may only work 40 hours per week, which is "a huge difference" in quality of life.

"Salary doesn't dictate where your career is going to take you," she said, adding that students often think, "I'm not getting paid as much as my peers are - it must be me," when often times "it has to do more with the type of industry one's job is in."

Emphasizing her point, Hewitt said, "We could bring in Einstein as an advisor here, and he'd get the same amount of money as all the other advisors in this office."

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