Mines News

Release Date Wednesday, January 16, 2013

National recognition: Mines graduates earn more than Harvard’s

RAPID CITY, S.D. (Oct. 1, 2012) – South Dakota School of Mines and Technology graduates enter the job market earning more than Harvard University graduates on average, and a news story touting this fact has been republished nationwide numerous times since it first appeared on Bloomberg.com on Sept. 17.

The impetus of the story is a shortage of mining industry engineers due to a dearth of graduates nationwide. Starting salary figures quoted from PayScale’s data from 2011-2012, however, include a more general figure for all graduates: $56,700 for South Dakota School of Mines and Technology graduates vs. $54,100 for Harvard University.

Joe Richter’s story highlights return on investment, citing the vast difference in tuition costs: $10,530 for out-of-state tuition costs for the School of Mines compared to Harvard’s approximately $40,000 for undergraduates. He also quotes a Mines senior who has already been offered a job at Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. paying more than $60,000 a year upon graduation this May.

The South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, founded in 1885 as a mining engineering institution during the heyday of the Black Hills gold rush, is one of just 14 universities in the nation to offer mining engineering degrees.

A shortage of industry workforce managers is one reason the School of Mines this year has begun offering a master’s degree in mining engineering.

Bloomberg’s story has gone viral since it was originally published. A handful of the many additional media outlets where the story, or parts of it, can be found are Time magazine, Forbes, the Today show, the Los Angeles Times, Yahoo! Finance, Asbury Park Press, The New York Observer, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Atlantic Wire and American Public Media’s Marketplace.
Contact: Vickie Bender, 605-394-1299, Vickie.Bender@sdsmt.edu

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About South Dakota Mines  

Founded in 1885, South Dakota Mines is one of the nation’s leading engineering, science and technology universities. South Dakota Mines offers bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees and a best-in-class education at an affordable price. The university enrolls 2,493 students with an average class size of 24. The South Dakota Mines placement rate for graduates is 98 percent, with an average starting salary of more than $70,036. For these reasons  South Dakota Mines is ranked among the best engineering schools in the country for return on investment. Find us online at www.sdsmt.edu and on FacebookTwitter, LinkedInInstagram, and Snapchat.

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