Colleges with the highest-paid grads

highest paid alumni princeton university

Princeton's campus is in Princeton, N.J.

Rank: 6
Mid-career salary: $121,000
Starting salary: $56,100
% of grads who think their job is meaningful: 46%

With an alumni list that includes the likes of Michelle Obama, Amazon's (AMZN) Jeff Bezos and Google's (GOOG) Eric Schmidt, it's safe to say that Princeton's grads have a strong track record.

The Ivy League college offers a broad range of studies -- from the humanities and natural sciences to engineering and architecture -- and grads across all of these disciplines tend to be hot commodities among recruiters.

First published October 23, 2013: 12:50 PM ET

Source: PayScale.com. Data used in the College Salary Report came from surveys completed by roughly 1.4 million college graduates of 1,016 colleges and universities, which represent 75% of all bachelor's degree recipients in the U.S. Graduates with advanced degrees were excluded from the results. Only full-time, civilian workers based in the 50 states and District of Columbia were counted. Mid-career results were based on median salaries of graduates with 10 years of work experience. Whether a job is meaningful is based on the percentage of graduates who answered "Very much so" and "Yes" to the question: "Does your work make the world a better place?"

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