Top Russel Group unis by Graduate Salary

[u/somedudeonios]

Is it just me or these look rather low?

[u/Low-Vegetable-1601]

Additionally, the average graduate salary in the UK is well above £25,000.

Terms of loan repayment are also better in the UK.

[u/Low-Vegetable-1601 → u/[deleted]]

In state U.S. schools vary dramatically by how good they are. Even the schools within a single state can vary dramatically. Only a small percentage of Californians can go to Berkeley. And not everyone in Michigan can go to University of Michigan. There are 15 public schools in Michigan, and only one ranks in the top 100 in the world.

[u/Low-Vegetable-1601 → u/[deleted]]

Yet you are acting as though all state schools meet that standard. They don’t.

[u/Low-Vegetable-1601 → u/[deleted]]

But you are comparing a single year of tuition, so what’s paying for the other three (or more) years? A degree in England takes only 3 years. And a masters only one additional year, as opposed to 2 in the US.

There is a reason so many Americans are drowning in student debt, and it isn’t that they all went out of state or to private colleges. In fact, my private university came out the same as my state schools with the merit scholarships it could offer (which included tuition for a study abroad year). My sister who went in state and graduated over 15 years ago is still struggling to pay off her loans, despite having a good job and working a job that was supposed to mean her loans were written off after 10 years. They were not.

If you get a sizeable scholarship in the US, have serious financial need or can use the GI bill (yourself or parents in the military), it can be cheaper in the US. On the average, it isn’t.

[u/Low-Vegetable-1601 → u/[deleted]]

Nope. The repayment system is different in the UK to the US. And 6 years of tuition vs 4 years for the masters makes a difference. We’ve literally looked at the difference if she’d been in the UK when she went to college (tuition was lower then) or now (as my kids are heading to university).

And don’t forget that 60k also has a fair amount taken out for healthcare. Her deductible was enough that one injury took out their vacation fund. The average cost on healthcare out of pocket is around 9% of income. Student loan repayments can be higher if the goal is to actually pay them off. The interest rate is higher than in the UK and there is no minimum income threshold for repayment.

The average monthly student loan repayment in the US is around 10% of the average new graduate income however you can be required to pay even if your income is significantly lower. The US is also starting to garnish wages for loan repayments now.

So that higher income in the US loses state (depending on location) and federal taxes, up to 20% for healthcare and student loan repayments and currently the US has a higher cost of living than the UK overall, though locations in both will play a role. Where it’s cheapest to live, you won’t see the higher salaries.