SUNY Downstate Leads in Undergraduate Degree Program Career Earnings
Oct 8, 2015
Brooklyn, NY – A new College Scorecard released by the U.S. Department of Education shows that SUNY Downstate Medical Center scores highest in the country for undergraduate career earnings.
Students from SUNY Downstate’s undergraduate degree programs earned the highest income of any school in the country, out of 3,587 schools in the database, with a median annual income of $121,500. The results were recently reported in The Wall Street Journal.
The first place result held when Downstate was compared to the 1,475 schools offering undergraduate health professions majors, and all 263 schools in New York State.
The College Scorecard measured earnings ten years from the time that students entered their program, whether they graduated from the program or not.
As a SUNY school that specializes in the health professions, Downstate offers students career choices that pay a huge return on their college investment. In New York City, as noted in The Wall Street Journal, scores for median earnings for undergraduate students were as follows:
SUNY Downstate Medical Center: $121,500
Polytechnic Institute of NYU: $73,500
Columbia University: $72,900
Manhattan College: $63,600
New York University: $58,800
Pace University: $58,400
Barnard College: $57,400
Yeshiva University: $55,600
Fordham University: $55,400
St. John's University $54,100.
Downstate undergraduate students have a proven record of success. This includes high on-time graduation rates (consistently above 90%, compared to a national average of 59% for undergrads) and a solid history of being hired for high-paying jobs in their chosen fields. Close to a hundred percent of Downstate’s undergraduate students are employed or accepted for advanced degrees within six months of graduation.
The College Scorecard is an online, easily accessible tool that highlights key indicators to help students choose a school that is well-suited to meet their needs, priced affordably, and is consistent with their educational and career goals.
The Scorecard was first announced by President Barack Obama during his visit to SUNY Buffalo in 2013. During that announcement, the President spoke about the need for all students to be able to pay for higher education, which he called “the best ticket to upward mobility” in American society.
In an essay for Inside Higher Ed, SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher praised the data release. “It’s not a moment too soon for colleges and universities across the nation to be held to a standard of transparency and accountability,” she wrote. “I applaud President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan for recognizing, as SUNY has, that data must be a driving factor as higher education works toward continued improvement."
Downstate offers 24 health professions programs, including 5 undergraduate programs: Diagnostic Medical Imaging, Physician Assistant, Accelerated Nursing, RN to BS, and a comprehensive bachelor’s to doctoral degree in Physical Therapy. It also grants MD, PhD, DPT, MS, and MPH degrees, as well as advanced certificates.
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About SUNY Downstate Medical Center
SUNY Downstate Medical Center, founded in 1860, was the first medical school in the United States to bring teaching out of the lecture hall and to the patient’s bedside. A center of innovation and excellence in research and clinical service delivery, SUNY Downstate Medical Center comprises a College of Medicine, College of Nursing, School of Health Professions, a School of Graduate Studies, School of Public Health, University Hospital of Brooklyn, and a multifaceted biotechnology initiative including the Downstate Biotechnology Incubator and BioBAT for early-stage and more mature companies, respectively.
SUNY Downstate ranks twelfth nationally in the number of alumni who are on the faculty of American medical schools. More physicians practicing in New York City have graduated from SUNY Downstate than from any other medical school.