SAIS Class of 2012 career placement report

[Revolution]

This is pretty informative. 47% did go into the private sector but very disturbing that the median salary is only $63,000. I'm hoping that is due to the fact that most SAIS students have only a few years of work experience, with very little in the private sector.

 

http://www.jhubc.it/ADMISSIONSBLOGDOCUMENTS/SAIS_EOR_ClassOf2012%20(1).pdf

 

 

[socal_kid]

Interesting.  Is the $63k figure significantly lower than those of years past?  

 

I am a little surprised the average work experience is so low for those accepted.  I mean you figure the average age of the incoming student is 26 and then graduates when he or she is 28.  At 28 years old 2.5 years of full time work experience is pretty low.  I would imagine this is kind of a turn off for any employer given most people would be out of undegrad for 6 years at this point.  

Edited March 6, 2013 by jesus_shuttlesworth

[Pinkman]

OP, not sure what you're expecting as a median salary. Again, SAIS is a International Relations school which just happens to place very well into the private sector. IMO, $60k+ is reasonable for someone coming from that school. If you're expecting $80-90k as a median, you're looking at the wrong programs. Sorry if this sounds harsh, but judging from your prior posts, you have an unrealistic expectation about what SAIS and HKS will do for you in terms of jobs and salary.

[Revolution]

Fair enough. Just not sure how policy programs can justify such a high tuition when the median salary coming out is so low. Since i have a lot of experience in financial trading, I'm hoping that i could come out of sais or hks with a much higher median salary. We'll see though; first I have to get in

 

 

OP, not sure what you're expecting as a median salary. Again, SAIS is a International Relations school which just happens to place very well into the private sector. IMO, $60k+ is reasonable for someone coming from that school. If you're expecting $80-90k as a median, you're looking at the wrong programs. Sorry if this sounds harsh, but judging from your prior posts, you have an unrealistic expectation about what SAIS and HKS will do for you in terms of jobs and salary.

[AvariciousBanker]

Revolution, $63K is a lot of money.  It can pay for a lot of hang gliding, which is going to get you more girls than HBS will.  Actually, just being confident changes the hierarchy completely.  Whether your degree is from Harvard or from UMass.

 

There is also a perception among businesspeople that people working in policy have jobs with fewer hours or less stress per hour than people working in industry. This perception may be obnoxiously off base (especially in a forum full of people who are studying policy), but if there's something to it, $63K/year for a 50 hour/week job beats $90K/year for an 80 hour/week job.  I can say that a lot of the jobs taken by MBAs are often higher stress jobs that are often 70, 80, even 90 hours per week. 

Edited March 22, 2013 by AvariciousBanker

[Revolution]

Revolution, $63K is a lot of money.  It can pay for a lot of hang gliding, which is going to get you more girls than HBS will.  Actually, just being confident changes the hierarchy completely.  Whether your degree is from Harvard or from UMass.

 

There is also a perception among businesspeople that people working in policy have jobs with fewer hours or less stress per hour than people working in industry. This perception may be obnoxiously off base (especially in a forum full of people who are studying policy), but if there's something to it, $63K/year for a 50 hour/week job beats $90K/year for an 80 hour/week job.  I can say that a lot of the jobs taken by MBAs are often higher stress jobs that are often 70, 80, even 90 hours per week. 

 

1. I can't afford to take out a large loan at my age to risk coming out with a $65K salary. That would be a debacle.

 

2. Public sector work is less stressful and less hours, but aside from the money, the work isn't as interesting, and the people you are working with just aren't as bright or accomplished. If they were, they would be in the private sector, especially top jobs in finance/consulting.

[trinidader]

Dude, you're dense.

[flyingjellyfish]

2. Public sector work is less stressful and less hours, but aside from the money, the work isn't as interesting, and the people you are working with just aren't as bright or accomplished. If they were, they would be in the private sector, especially top jobs in finance/consulting.

 

Oh Revolution, you troll you.  Many accomplished people, me included, have no interest in working in the private sector. I've worked directly on public policy in the public sector for 3.5 years now with bright, accomplished people and find it fascinating. In my free time, I'm on the Board of a local nonprofit doing advocacy work, which is also extremely interesting and meaningful.  I'm committed to public service and am never going to make the big bucks. 

 

[JMO]

People shouldn't take Revolution too seriously, or they simply are taking themselves too seriously.  

[biscuits]

As a counterpoint to Revolution, may I offer an excerpt from a recent post by the SSIR:

 

"Myth #5: The talent won’t work without the big prizes. It’s just not true. In the nonprofit sector, the mission-focused ethos has drawn many top executives to work for $84,000. Let’s consider cancer researchers again. They face a salary cap of $179,700 placed by the National Institutes for Health. Pallotta would argue that the best talent would therefore not be drawn to study cancer. However, talented cancer researchers who love their work have made much progress (while puzzled economists have concluded that“scientists pay to do science” when they forego higher pay in the biotech sector). The breast cancer mortality rate has dropped substantially from 100 percent sixty years ago to 23 percent today, a success that did not hinge on big salaries for talent. In fact, much of this success hinged on funding from the sector that Pallotta did not even mention—the public sector."

 

Full post: http://www.ssireview.org/blog/entry/persistent_poverty_in_a_smug_meritocracy

[Putnam]

SAIS probably should include the range of salaries. Stating the median just indicates that half of those reporting receive more than $63,000. Why should Revolution have a problem with his/her significant experience in a niche area of finance? Revolution seems to be willing to take on that debt for a salary of around $95,000, perhaps Revolution is making significantly less than $85,000 now, but more than $50,000. This is just speculation, back of the envelope calculations. However, it seems Revolution is willing to take SAIS level of debt and the opportunity cost of attending grad school for two years in order to secure an income of $95,000. Maybe Revolution would be willing to take $85,000 today. Anyway, a similar scenario could be realized by going to any b-school in the top 30, dependent of course on funding. All of those schools have an average salary of over $100,000. The comparison would be easier to make if SAIS reported average salary, since the average may be higher than the median. However, it may be a reasonable assumption to make that the average salary is significantly less at SAIS than at a top 30 b-school. If indeed Revolution is as high caliber an applicant as he/she believes himself/herself to be, then Revolution could conceivably receive significant funding from a program outside the top 10~12. Obviously the downside is that it will be extremely hard to get a job at a bulge bracket much less private equity.

 

I would also like to point out that there is a typo in one of Revolution’s posts: “I'm hoping that i could come out of sais or hks with a much higher median salary.” I assume you are hoping to receive a salary significantly over the median at SAIS and HKS. You can’t receive a “higher median salary,” since the median is the median of a sample distribution. 

[Revolution]

SAIS probably should include the range of salaries. Stating the median just indicates that half of those reporting receive more than $63,000. Why should Revolution have a problem with his/her significant experience in a niche area of finance? Revolution seems to be willing to take on that debt for a salary of around $95,000, perhaps Revolution is making significantly less than $85,000 now, but more than $50,000. This is just speculation, back of the envelope calculations. However, it seems Revolution is willing to take SAIS level of debt and the opportunity cost of attending grad school for two years in order to secure an income of $95,000. Maybe Revolution would be willing to take $85,000 today. Anyway, a similar scenario could be realized by going to any b-school in the top 30, dependent of course on funding. All of those schools have an average salary of over $100,000. The comparison would be easier to make if SAIS reported average salary, since the average may be higher than the median. However, it may be a reasonable assumption to make that the average salary is significantly less at SAIS than at a top 30 b-school. If indeed Revolution is as high caliber an applicant as he/she believes himself/herself to be, then Revolution could conceivably receive significant funding from a program outside the top 10~12. Obviously the downside is that it will be extremely hard to get a job at a bulge bracket much less private equity.

 

I would also like to point out that there is a typo in one of Revolution’s posts: “I'm hoping that i could come out of sais or hks with a much higher median salary.” I assume you are hoping to receive a salary significantly over the median at SAIS and HKS. You can’t receive a “higher median salary,” since the median is the median of a sample distribution. 

 

 

I agree that SAIS should have a 80% range of salaries, but they claim that they do not keep track of such information. It's something that I'm very much interested in as well.

 

Regarding your point, I'm willing to take out a loan and spend 2 years in grad school IF i think it will help me to achieve my professional and personal goals. The initial base salary isn't the most important factor to me, but the $90-95K figure is a number i picked out to ensure that i could maintain a similar standard of living as i do now.

[lomsaku]

Go away, Revolution.