In the May 2019 collegescorecard data there are slightly over 150 institutions that report mean earnings 10 years after attending for the highest family income of $75,001+ (MN_EARN_WNE_INC3_P10) as being lower than earnings for the lowest family income $0-$30,000 (MN_EARN_WNE_INC1_P10). This goes against intuition although it is possible that some of this is correct. Is there anyway to verify the extent to which MN_EARN_WNE_INC3_P10 < MN_EARN_WNE_INC1_P10 can be true? Some of the differences are in excess of 50%.
1 Answer
It is not possible for end users to verify these data, as the student-level matching is performed within the Department and only the aggregate statistics are made publicly available. The Department does not have any reason to believe that these data are inaccurate, and while these 150 institutions may not follow the pattern of most institutions, it is certainly likely that not all institutions will exhibit that same pattern.
