TSU ranked among Top 30 black colleges with highest starting salaries for graduates

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (TSU News Service) – When it comes to earning power, Tennessee State University graduates do very well.

A recent ranking of the average starting salaries for graduates at the nation’s top 30 historically black colleges puts TSU at No. 6.

EDsmart, a nationally recognized publisher of college resources and rankings, published the 2017 ranking.

It shows recent TSU graduates are averaging $48,100 in starting salaries.

Officials at TSU call the ranking “a testament of how valuable an education from TSU is for our students.”

“When students see that they will graduate from this institution with a great projected salary, it makes the decision to attend TSU the obvious choice,” said Charles Jennings, Jr., director of the TSU Career Development Center.

The ranking puts TSU graduates in the top tier of earning potential for people receiving undergraduate degrees in 2017. According to the Society for Human Resource Management, the average starting salaries for all recent graduates in entry-level positions is $49,785, an all-time high.

This upward movement is more good news for TSU officials, who are doing everything possible to ensure students are adequately prepared and given the necessary tools for success in the job market.

Recently, the university received a $2 million career development grant from the United Negro College Fund. The funding will give the university the tools to prepare and ultimately help TSU graduates immediately secure employment.

“We want to make sure that when they graduate, they’ll have jobs,” said Tina Reed, associate director of the career center.

A number of students who graduated from TSU in May had jobs waiting for them. Most of them credited TSU faculty and programs like the university’s career center with motivating them to be successful.

“Having a job after graduation is a blessing,” said 24-year-old Cametria Weatherspoon, who received her degree in electrical engineering. She has a job working in programming at Lockheed Martin’s Space Systems Company in Littleton, Colorado.

For more information on the TSU Career Development Center, visit http://www.tnstate.edu/careers/

Department of Media Relations

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About Tennessee State University

With more than 9,000 students, Tennessee State University is Nashville’s only public university, and is a comprehensive, urban, co-educational, land-grant university offering 38 undergraduate, 25 graduate and seven doctoral programs. TSU has earned a top 20 ranking for Historically Black Colleges and Universities according to U.S. News and World Report, and rated as one of the top universities in the country by Washington Monthly for social mobility, research and community service. Founded in 1912, Tennessee State University celebrated 100 years in Nashville during 2012. Visit the University online at tnstate.edu.