Upper Peninsula grads raking in dough after graduation

HOUGHTON — Michigan Tech is getting high marks in terms of graduate salaries.

One way to tackle high student debt is to get a job that pays you a lot of money right from the start. Graduates from Michigan Tech can expect the second highest starting salary in the state.
That’s according to data compiled by SmartAssests, a New York-based financial technology company.

In fact, the study shows the average starting salary for graduates is in the ballpark of $60,000 a year. That’s higher than the University of Michigan, higher than Michigan State University.
Only Kettering University in Flint faired slightly better.

Michigan Tech’s Associate Vice President for Enrollment, Marketing & Communications John Lehman said, “This coming month we’ve got about 340 employers coming to campus. They understand the quality of the Michigan Tech student and so they’re offering high competitive salaries because they want our students.”

Michigan Tech is getting recognized more and more for the quality of the school and the talent of the students. That’s because recent rankings have taken into consideration the output of the university.

Lehman said, “Some of the previous rankings only looked at what the input was, so ‘How many students is a school saying ‘No’ to’, in terms of applications. When we look at the output, Michigan Tech does very well and that’s really what students and parents are most interested in.”

Tech was also ranked 2nd in the state by SmartAssests in best overall value in Michigan. So that starting salary comes with a very reasonable price tag.