When it comes to earnings, not sure some top colleges offer any advantage over others. The University of Chicago appears to have a rather poor payback pattern. And for most of them, the payback for females is severely disappointing.

If one factors in the probable post-graduation geographic locations of the students and the associated costs of living, you might find that it makes little-to-no difference which of these colleges one chooses.

The overall conclusion is that by age 34, none of the graduates in the median income level are exactly "burning up the road". Unless they had significant financial aid along the way, many of them might still be paying off their student loans and wondering what they bought.

(Note: Some colleges tied with others)

USNWR-Rank/School/MeadianStartingSalary/MedianIncomeAge34Male/MedianIncomeAge34Female

01/Princeton/$68400/$109600/$75300

02/Harvard/$66500/$96000/$70200

03/Yale/$63200/$90900/$66300

03/U-Chicago/$57700/$71100/$56300

03/Columbia/$64900/$92200/$64300

03/MIT/$79800/$110900/$82500

07/Stanford/$70700/$101800/$73400

08/Duke/$66200/$107800/$72300

08/U-Pennsylvania/$66100/$110200/$76400

10/JohnsHopkins/$63400/$85100/$63900

10/Northwestern/$58800/$87100/$63800

12/Cal-Tech/$81000/$93600/$61300

12/Dartmouth/$63800/$92700/$64500

14/Vanderbilt/$61400/$89000/$60000

14/Brown/$60300/$81400/$59600

25/U-Virginia/$59600/$86200/$60600

27/U-Michigan/$61900/$82100/$57800

35/U-Florida/$52800/$69200/$48300

38/BostonCollege/$57900/$85800/$62200

42/CaseWesternReserve/$63000/$79600/$61300

42/Boston-U/$55200/$73200/$56800

49/U-Texas/$56800/$71600/$48500

56/Rutgers/$55600/$66500/$53100