In its first data-driven college rankings, Optimal, formerly the SR Education Group, featured Lehigh’s accounting program on its 2020 Best Colleges list as one of the top schools in the nation to obtain a degree in accounting.
On a GradReports.com list that includes Georgetown University, the University of Notre Dame and Villanova University, Lehigh graduates with an accounting degree ranked eighth in median salary, earning $63,900 one year after graduation. The rankings, the first to be based on median early career salary data recently released by the U.S. Department of Education, highlighted the top 25 schools by median salary one year after students graduated with a bachelor’s degree in accounting. Salary data of more than five million graduates from College Scorecard, a resource of the U.S. Department of Education, was compiled.
Of the 25 schools ranked, Lehigh also was listed in the top 10 among schools whose graduates with an accounting degree held the lowest median debt one year after graduation, ranking 10th. The lowest median debt represents the debt accumulated by student borrowers of federal loans who completed a degree in accounting.
Both salary and total debt data are based on school-reported information about students' program of completion.