Engineering Degrees Offer Highest Starting Salaries

BETHLEHEM, PA -- Petroleum engineers earned the highest starting salary offer among the class of 2010 --$74,799 -- followed by chemical engineers ($65,628) according to a study conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE).

The only non-engineering degree to crack the top five was computer science, coming in at third with an average starting salary offer of $61,112.

Rounding out the top five were computer engineering ($59,917) and electrical/electronics engineering ($59,381).

Despite the high salaries, the current averages actually represent lost ground for all but chemical engineering graduates.

The average offer to chemical engineers gained 1.1 percent over last year at this time, but the average offer to petroleum engineers fell 10 percent compared to July 2009.

Losses were smaller for graduates in computer science (down 0.5 percent), computer engineering (down 2.9 percent), and electrical/electronics engineering (down 1.2 percent).

"Those high starting salary offers reflect the uneven supply and demand that exists for these graduates, even in the current economy," says Marilyn Mackes, NACE executive director.

In fact, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), all engineering degrees accounted for just 5.4 percent of the 1,563,069 bachelor's degrees conferred in 2008. Just 521 -- or 0.03 percent of the total number of bachelor's degrees -- were conferred in petroleum engineering.

"All of the top five earners are in short supply," says Mackes. "Each accounts for less than 1 percent of the degrees granted."

---

Top-Paying Bachelor's Degrees*

Major	Average Salary Offer
Petroleum Engineering	$74,799
Chemical Engineering	$65,628
Computer Science	$61,112
Computer Engineering	$59,917
Electrical/Electronics	$59,391
*Where 50 or more offers were reported.