Diverse professional school cohorts linked to higher starting salaries, study suggests
Analysis of nearly 350 institutions over two decades indicates graduates from high-diversity classes consistently earn significantly above the median, prompting calls for a judicial review of past decisions.
A new study published in Nature has identified a measurable financial advantage for graduates of diverse professional school cohorts. Researchers Debanjan Mitra, Peter Golder, and Mariya Topchy analysed data spanning more than 20 years from nearly 350 business and law schools to determine the correlation between cohort diversity and starting salaries. Their findings suggest that graduates from high-diversity groups consistently earn starting salaries a standard deviation or more above the median, whereas those from low-diversity cohorts show the opposite trend.
The researchers examined a vast dataset covering approximately 3,000 business school graduates and a larger number of law school graduates. In business schools, high-diversity cohorts earned starting salaries that were a standard deviation or more above the median 966 times out of 3,964 cohorts, compared with just 534 times for low-diversity cohorts. This pattern held true for law schools as well, where high-diversity groups saw high salaries in 1,128 of 3,386 opportunities against 490 for low-diversity cohorts. The trend reversed for relatively low starting salaries, with high-diversity cohorts showing up 531 times compared to 933 for low-diversity ones.
To ensure the results were not skewed by external factors, the authors implemented rigorous controls. They removed the top and bottom 5 per cent of starting salaries to rule out outliers, assigned separate time trends to each school to account for local economic conditions, and controlled for university prestige, size, and urban settings. The correlation remained robust across different diversity metrics and thresholds, with the effect appearing particularly strong for students entering the public sector or joining large companies.
The study directly addresses a key gap identified in the 2023 US Supreme Court ruling, which struck down race-based affirmative action programs. The Court had previously cited universities' inability to clearly measure the benefits of diverse student bodies and the lack of defined standards for when equity had been achieved as reasons to end such initiatives. Mitra, Golder, and Topchy argue that their research provides the quantifiable metric and clear endpoint for diversity benefits that the Court noted was missing.
The authors contend that this evidence of a measurable financial benefit should prompt courts to reconsider the 2023 decision. They note that while theoretical conflicts exist between learning theory, which suggests diversity promotes student learning, and documented racial wage discrimination, their data supports the former in a professional context. The study concludes that the measurable goal serves as a valid endpoint for professional education, indicating when diversity is sufficient for all entering classes to benefit.
While the study establishes a correlation rather than proving causation, the consistency of the results across various analytical methods suggests a significant link between cohort diversity and graduate earnings. The researchers maintain that previous courts, business executives, and university leaders have consistently affirmed the benefits of diversity, a view that contrasts with the most recent Supreme Court stance. Their work offers a new framework for evaluating the efficacy of affirmative action programs based on tangible economic outcomes.
