Lawrence Technological University was ranked highest in the metropolitan Detroit three-county area and placed in the top 100 colleges and universities nationwide in the 2014 PayScale College ROI Report, which measures the return on investment and increased earning power generated by a college bachelor’s degree.
PayScale.com is an online salary, benefits and compensation information company. Its annual survey of compensation of college graduates’ ROI is based on more than a million employees.
The Seattle-based research firm looked at how much college graduates earned over the first 20 years of their careers, minus the cost of tuition, room, board and books, taking financial aid into account. PayScale then compared that number to the pay of a high school graduates who worked for 24 to 26 years.
The net return on investment on an LTU bachelor’s degree over 20 years was $183,900, which placed it 91st in a survey of 1,310 colleges. (Almost all public universities appear twice in the survey to reflect the different tuition rates for in-state and out-of-state students.) See the entire list at www.payscale.com/college-roi/full-list.
The PayScale survey documents that students who get the best return on their college investment major in science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) and attend schools with well-known programs that help with job placement.
“When it comes to earnings, yes, it’s all about STEM,” said Katie Bardaro, an economist at PayScale.
Lawrence Tech’s high ranking reflects the success of its students who majored in STEM majors such as engineering, the strength of its national reputation and the effectiveness of its Office of Career Services.
With a recent $20 million gift, LTU is working to create a new center dedicated to improving the teaching of STEM subjects by incorporating a system of projects with industry partners, integrating the newest technologies, and assuring a high amount of educational mentoring and counsel.
“LTU is firmly committed to offering STEM and STEM-leading education,” said LTU President Virinder Moudgil. “STEM is part of our DNA, and it has been since we were founded at the edge of Henry Ford’s famous Model T factory in 1932.”
Moudgil added that students and their families are increasingly concerned about the bottom line of their investment in higher education. “They want to know that the time and money they put into college will pay off in their careers. We’re pleased that the results at LTU have been consistently strong and reflect the type of high-paying, high-value professions that LTU graduates typically aspire to.”
Lawrence Technological University, www.ltu.edu, is a private university founded in 1932 that offers more than 100 programs through the doctoral level in its Colleges of Architecture and Design, Arts and Sciences, Engineering, and Management. PayScale lists Lawrence Tech among the nation’s top 7 percent of universities for return on undergraduate tuition investment, and highest in the Detroit metropolitan area. Lawrence Tech is also listed in the top tier of Midwestern universities by U.S. News and World Report and the Princeton Review. Students benefit from small class sizes and experienced faculty who provide a real-world, hands-on, “theory and practice” education with an emphasis on leadership. Activities on Lawrence Tech’s 102-acre campus include over 60 student clubs and organizations and a growing roster of NAIA varsity sports.