Bank: It's What College Presidents Make

The Chronicle of Higher Education has just compiled its list of the top paid private university presidents, which proves once again that going to college* really does pay off.

But it turns out that being on top of the U.S. News and World Report college rankings doesn’t directly correlate with getting top dollar (another reason, perhaps, to be suspicious of rankings in general). Drew Gilpin Faust runs the top school in the nation, according U.S. News, but is the seventh highest paid university president in Massachusetts. Not the country, just Massachusetts. The top paid prez in the U.S.? Constantine N. Papadakis, head of Drexel University in Philadelphia. I guess the logic is that because he already sounds like he could be a Greek shipping magnate, why not pay him like one? (For the record, he made** makes $4,037,568 more than Faust, and Drexel ranks 88th in the nation according to U.S. News.) Here’s a quick rundown of the state’s top earners:

1. Jehuda Reinhartz, Brandeis University, $1,536,401

2. David J. Sargent, Suffolk University, $1,481,787

3. Anthony S. Caprio, Western New England University, $1,190,638

4. Robert A. Brown, Boston University, $1,190,638

5. Joseph E. Aoun, Northeastern University, $1,016,461

6. Susan Hockfield, MIT, $931,603

7. Drew Gilpin Faust, Harvard University, $874,559

*If by going, you mean you’re traveling to and from college because you currently work there as a university president.

**Update: Also for the record, Papadakis was the highest earning college president in 2009, the most recent year these numbers were available. Unfortunately, he’s since passed away. Thanks to reader Steve for setting the record straight.