Dominican University of California among US colleges with best post-grad salaries

A ranking which compares the median salaries earned by graduates with bachelor’s and master’s degrees among the nation’s colleges and universities has turned up some area educational institutions.

Dominican University of California joins Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale and Stanford as among the nation’s top 10 schools for post-graduate salaries, according to GradReports.

It compared the salaries of more than 4.6 million college graduates to determine “salary scores” for more than 885 college degrees, then used the scores to rank the 2021 Best Colleges at the associate, bachelor's and master's levels.

Each college is ranked based on median alumni earnings in the first year after graduation for students who received federal financial aid.

The salary score compares the median alumni salary for a specific program at one school to the median alumni salary for the same program at other schools. The rankings for a bachelor's degree — which was determined from the pool of 900 colleges — was 99.54 for Harvard, the No. 1 ranked school. For Dominican University, which ranked 10th, the score was 97.21. The rankings reflected the median alumni earnings for students in the first year after graduation. All of the students received some federal financial student aid.

“I am confident that Dominican is the only institution near the top of this list whose student body includes such a high percentage of students who are the first in their family to attend college, who are from underrepresented groups or who are Pell-grant eligible,” said Mary B. Marcy, president of the San Rafael-based university.

Looking at bachelor's degrees issued to students in nursing programs, Dominican ranked 15th, with a graduate earning a median annual salary upon graduation of $91,600 a year.

Ranking of first-year salaries for those with a bachelor's degrees in other nursing programs turned up another North Bay university.

According to GradReports, Sonoma State University, with annual tuition of $19,678, produced the highest median first-year salary for a nursing graduate at $110,300 a year, ahead of 24 other universities. Its graduation rate for the program was 63%.

Another area university was on the list — Pacific Union College in Napa County. Ranked 22nd, its median nursing student salary was $89,700 a year, the survey showed.

Sonoma State University also turned up in the rankings when GradReports looked at salary scored for a master's degree in education. The Rohnert Park-based university was ranked 11th. Median salary for a graduate just out of school was $59,700 a year.

A sampling of median salaries for graduates of some of Dominican's programs include $39,370 a year for a graduate with a bachelor's degree in biology, to $56,420 a year for an undergraduate degree in government. Median salaries for master’s degree graduates early on in their careers ranged from $42,680 for someone with a counseling degree, to $165,770 a year for the holder of a master's degree in clinical/medical laboratory science.