Forget Havard – SD School Of Mines Grads Make More Money

Want your kid to graduate college with a great career and a ton of money coming at him? Don't push him to Harvard. The real money is going to kids who graduate from a tiny college in western South Dakota.

Last year, the median salary of a Harvard graduate in their first year in the workforce was $54,100. First-year graduates from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology had a median salary of $56,700, which is $2,600 more than Harvard.

South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City has about 2,300 students and tuition is $9,370 per year in-state and $11,310 out-of-state. That is about four times lower than Harvard's.

But it's training graduates for a field that's exploding and understaffed. That's the mineral industry. Commodities like copper and gold are skyrocketing in price and they're becoming harder to find. Companies that explore and mine for minerals really need more mineral engineers, geoscientists, and Earth sciences experts. And that's exactly who's graduating from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.

[Bloomberg]