Playing around with the data for TidyTuesday is like joining a mini hackathon — lots of fun, some manageable challenges, and so many new insights! I wonder why I have never done it before. So, this plot is my first try and my contribution to the TidyTuesday on tuition fees.

I was wondering whether it really pays off going to an expensive school — and, if so, whether the type of school (public, private, Ivy league, Top10 ranked) makes a difference. I plotted the results both for estimated early and mid career pays (in USD).

And, what do we get out of it? Based on my plots, it can pay off to go to a pricy school but it’s not about belonging to the Ivy league that tells you something about your estimated income — both in the short- and in the mid-run. It appears that it’s rather about going to a highly ranked school that is more likely to increase your estimated income in the mid-run.

The code is available on my GitHub. You also find a larger version of the figure here.