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Return on Investment – What’s An Engineering Degree Worth?

By May 3, 20112 Comments

I wrote about it last year when the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) released their findings for the average salary of all 2010 grads… and its about time we get a new survey. This year’s average salary offer survey was just released by NACE with the average for 2011 grads up 5.9% over the class of 2010!

Hit the jump for even more numbers and which Bachelor’s Degrees got the best starting salaries (HINT: its an engineering degree)

Thats right – as a matter of fact, all of the top earning bachelor’s degrees are engineering degrees, again.

Majors for 2010-2011 bachelor’s degree graduates with the best salary offers:

Curriculum Average salary offer
Chemical engineering $66,886
Computer science $63,017
Mechanical engineering $60,739
Electrical/electronics and communications engineering $60,646
Computer engineering $60,112
Industrial/manufacturing engineering $58,549
Systems engineering $57,497
Engineering technology $57,176
Information sciences and systems $56,868
Business systems networking/telecommunications $56,808

Check out the MarketWatch article for more information.

Paul Ledesma

As Executive Director, Paul oversees Undergraduate Admission for all programs at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. He was born and raised in southern California and is a lifetime Dodgers fan. He enjoys traveling (Italy may be a second home), discovering new restaurants in LA (tacos anyone?), and while he may not qualify as a bonafide movie-buff, he loves movies (especially comic book movies). He studied Psychology for his bachelor's degree, minored in Public Management, and was active in leadership for community service groups Troy Camp and Dance Marathon while attending USC. When he's not working he enjoys spending time with his wife, daughter, and rescued pup and kitty in Redondo Beach, CA. (well, maybe not the cat so much) Preferred Pronouns: he/him/his

2 Comments

  • I guess it pays to study for an engineering degree.
    Engineering degrees are in high demand all over the world,especially here in the UK oil industry where chemical engineers are paid at least twice what is quoted above.

  • betty linxbo says:

    Great to have this info – as a benchmark….but as we all know….every salary fluctuates in realtion to three factors:

    1. The state of the economy.
    2. How badly they want you.
    3. How badly you want them