BOSTON -- Graduates of several New England colleges will likely be making more money than their peers 10 years down the line, according to PayScale.com's 2009 Salary report, which ranks colleges based on the salaries of their alumni.

Dartmouth College tops the list with a mid-career median salary of $129,000, closely followed by Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, both with $126,000.

"I think the average student who picks a college looks at it in large part as an investment," said Richard Vedder, who works with Forbes to compile its college rankings and suggested incorporating PayScale.com's findings into the mix.

Vedder, an Ohio University economics professor, said ranking schools based on projected graduate incomes may appall some people, but it was actually his students who turned him on to the idea in the first place.

"I figured if students look at data, it must be something they think is important," said Vedder, who also directs the Center for College Affordability and Productivity.

Of the nearly 650 schools listed, Boston College came in at No. 57 with a mid-career median salary of $101,000, Boston University ranked 118 with $91,000, and University of Massachusetts – Boston ranked 359 with $75,000. Lists could be further broken down into several popular majors, geographic regions, public or and a few appeared to be listed more than once.

Forbes took Vedder's suggestion and weighed PayScale.com's salary rankings 12.5 percent, Vedder said.

This the second year PayScale.com has compiled college rankings based on median salaries, said Al Lee, PayScale's director of quantitative analysis. In the future, the Web site hopes to include 2,500 schools in its rankings.

The rankings are based on survey responses from 1.2 million site visitors, according to the Web site.

PayScale.com's findings were fairly accurate because they didn't come from the schools themselves, Lee said.

It is important to note that the median is based on a wide range of salaries, especially for elite liberal arts schools, he said. For instance, PayScale.com found that the lower 10 percent of Boston College graduates earned only $47,000 a year, but graduates also earned up to $219,000 a year.