With a median midcareer salary of $70,900 a year, San Diego City College alumni are among the highest paid 2-year college graduates in the country, according to a new report.
San Diego City College ranks second out of 349 schools included in the report, behind the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, whose graduates earn a median mid-career salary of $71,000, according to the report by Seattle-based PayScale.
Midcareer salaries are defined as annual earnings after 10 years in the workforce. PayScale looked at salary data collected from graduates of public community colleges, private for-profit schools, and private not-for-profit schools.
Most popular jobs for San Diego City College alumni, according to the PayScale report, include registered nurse, maintenance engineer, legal assistant, engineering technician, and graphic designer.
San Diego City College alumni include Jim Sinegal, who co-founded Costco Wholesale Corp. in 1983; Josh Higgins, a creative director for the communication design team at Facebook who served as design director for President Obama’s 2012 campaign; Houston Astros pitching coach Brent Strom; and Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist David Hasemyer.
“City College was so inspiring, I couldn’t get enough,” Higgins said. “For the first time in my life, I loved school.”
City College isn’t the only San Diego Community College District campus that fared well in the latest PayScale report. San Diego Mesa College ranked No. 49 with a median midcareer salary of $60,700, according to the survey.
