Today: Mar 29, 2024

Ranked in top 15 for salary scores

Caitlin O’HalloranReporter

The university has been ranked on GradReports’ 2021 as one of the Best Colleges by Salary Score in Connecticut’s list.

“Big thing with GradReports versus other ranking sites is we’re very, very big on data first and foremost, rather than prestige like something like U.S. News and World Report is. That’s the big thing. We often get compared to them and we feel like by using strictly government data and not factoring all of these other things, this other noise, as we say, that these other ranking sites use, we think that we offer something that a lot of other sites aren’t doing,” said Optimal, GradReports parent company, outreach manager Brian Hepp.

GradReports’ site states that with their college rankings, they focus on the things that matter to graduates. Students looking for a career after graduation without the worry of drowning in debt.

The site expresses value of focusing on real-life data and how salary scores can overall benefit students by focusing on their future income. Some appreciation should go to some of the offices at Southern that helps students go in the right direction with their majors that lead to a successful career path because they are part of the reason that Southern is able to be successful enough to be on this list.

“At a core level, our office really helps all students in three major areas, so while they’re here at Southern, we talk a little bit about career exploration and navigating and finding the right kind of experience that aligns with their career choice, whether that’s through an internship or other learning experiences or sometimes contributing to experiences on or off campus,” said Director of Career and Professional Development Kelvin Rutledge.

On the GradReports list, Southern was ranked 14 out of 15 schools in Connecticut with a salary score of 49.92. Another helpful department that results in a student’s success after graduation is the Office of Career and Professional Development.

“We’ll help students prepare and discover a major that fits best for them, you know make a career goal, a career path or just help them with job searching so it really depends on what the students need but, we can help with any of it,” said Graduate Assistant in the Office of Career and Professional Development Emily Velidow.

Optimal’s Marketing Manager Kellen Schwartz assures it is a beneficial and positive thing especially during the time of making a decision on a school to go to.

“It’s still an achievement to be on the list. In order to qualify you have to have had a number of graduates who are from many different degrees that all have this data reported and it’s still definitely a positive. Even though you might not be number one on the list, you still qualified for the list and it’s still a very positive thing to be on and you can see the actual salary scores that you have are very near the median and mean so it’s not like it’s a negative thing,” said Schwartz.

According to their website, in order to be considered for qualification of being ranked on the state rankings, schools have to be offering and provide at least eight different bachelor programs.

“Just because a school is a little bit lower, as Kellen said, it can still have a higher salary score and we just hope that the data we are providing is of use to students,” said Hepp.

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