Brookings ranks SUNY Maritime top college in graduate earnings

The following is the text of a news release from the State University of New York (SUNY) Maritime College:

(THROGGS NECK, N.Y.) — SUNY Maritime College has been ranked by a national think tank as the top public college in the nation in graduate earnings, and for providing the highest value added in mid-career earnings.

During a one-week period, more than a half-dozen NYC newspapers, radio and television stations carried stories about the maritime college.

The buzz was about a recent study by the renowned Brookings Institution, which found that SUNY Maritime College graduates earn more than their counterparts at such prestigious national institutions as Harvard and Yale. In fact, the study found that Maritime College graduates earned, on average, more than $121,000 a year in the decade following the completion of their degrees.

Maritime College grads also realized a value-added 42 percentage; a calculation that measures the difference between actual and predicted earnings. A zero value-added measure indicates a school’s students earn the average as students at similar types of colleges. Again, SUNY Maritime College ranks first in public four-year colleges.

The Brookings report notes that the choice of where to attend college is perhaps the most important investment decision a student and their families make. Yet few know little about how institutions of higher learning compare on quality.

Drawing on a variety of government and private data sources, Brookings presents an analysis of college value-added with respect to the economic success of a college’s graduates, measured by the incomes graduates earn, the occupations in which they work, and loan repayment rates.

According to the report, “a college’s value-added measures the difference between actual alumni outcomes (like salaries) and predicted outcomes for institutions with similar characteristics and students. Value-added captures college quality, such as graduation rates and the market value of the skills a college teaches, as well as immeasurable “x factors,” like exceptional leadership or teaching, that contribute to student success.”  Colleges with high value-added in terms of alumni earnings include nationally-recognized universities, but also less well-known institutions.

The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington. Its mission is to conduct high-quality, independent research to provide innovative, practical recommendations that advance three broad goals: strengthen American democracy; foster the economic and social welfare, security and opportunity of all Americans; and secure a more open, safe, prosperous and cooperative international system. Brookings consistently is ranked as the most influential, most quoted and most trusted think tank.

By Professional Mariner Staff