Electrical, Electronics and Communications Engineering at Franklin W Olin College of Engineering

Olin College's engineering selectivity (22% admission rate, 1540 average SAT) suggests outcomes should rival MIT or Northeastern, but without reported graduate data, we're left estimating from Massachusetts state medians. Those benchmarks—roughly $83,000 in first-year earnings against $26,000 in debt—match what schools like Wentworth and Western New England produce, not what you'd expect from an institution attracting students at near-Ivy academic levels.

The debt-to-earnings ratio of 0.31 looks manageable on paper, and electrical engineering typically offers strong long-term prospects regardless of where you study it. But for families choosing between Olin and schools with transparent outcomes, the comparison is stark: MIT graduates in this field earn $117,000 their first year, Worcester Poly graduates clear $90,000, and even these schools serve students with similar credentials. The estimation based on state peers may undersell Olin's actual performance—or it may not. Without data, that's a $35,000 question mark.

The strategic issue is clarity. When peer institutions publish outcomes showing engineering graduates thriving, prospective families can evaluate return on investment with confidence. Here, you're betting that Olin's innovative curriculum and tight-knit community translate to results that exceed what the estimates suggest, despite paying roughly the same debt burden as programs with proven track records.