Many students want to study engineering in college, due in large part to the belief that it will set them up with a great career. While it’s slightly more complicated than that (see our guide for engineering majors to learn more), it is very true that engineers are often in high demand, and it is quite easy for most engineering students to find a career after graduation.
Of course, not every college is created equal, and some do a better job preparing their students to enter the workforce than others, due to advantages in networking. In this article, we’re going to examine career outcomes for students at some of the US’s top engineering programs, so you get a sense of how well each of them does at preparing their students for what comes next. Let’s get started!
What Makes for a Successful Engineering Career?
Before diving into the data, let’s briefly discuss what the data is, where it comes from, and what it means. First, a brief note on how engineering careers work. After graduation, you need to take an exam and become certified in whatever discipline of engineering you are pursuing. This is a relatively straightforward process, but needs to be done before you can begin an engineering career.
Many students begin a career straight out of undergrad, but some engineering professions require higher education, such as a master’s degree or a PhD. These jobs are often more highly compensated, but have a higher barrier to entry. In this article, we are only looking at career outcomes for students with an undergraduate degree.
Our data comes from two sources. The first is College Scorecard, which is data collected and presented by the US Department of Education on career outcomes for students from various universities. This data comes from four years after graduation, enough time for students to have become settled into their new careers. Note that this data only comes from students who received funding from the federal government (including grants, loans, and work study), so does not capture the experiences of all students. That said, it is still a good representative sample.
The other source of data is universities and departments themselves. While not all of them publish data, many colleges enjoy showing off the successes of their alumni believing, quite rightly, that the success of their students reflects well on them. This usually comes from voluntary surveys sent out to students at the time of graduation, so is rarely fully complete, but again gives a good sample of what a school offers.
We won’t be discussing every engineering program, just a selection of some of the best. Just because a school isn’t on this list doesn’t mean it can’t prepare you for a great career in engineering.
Finally, most colleges offer multiple engineering majors. We will be taking data from general engineering where possible, and indicating what major we are looking at otherwise.
Here is a chart summarizing our findings, read on to learn more about the specific outcomes of top engineering schools:
MIT
MIT has a serious reputation for the strength of its engineering programs, so its inclusion on this list isn’t a surprise. MIT doesn’t have a general engineering major, so let’s look at the career outcomes on College Scorecard for what they do have:
- Aerospace Engineering: $109,873
- Biomedical Engineering: $116,182
- Chemical Engineering: $99,799
- Electrical Engineering: $172,897
- Mechanical Engineering: $98,644
While all of these are quite strong earnings, the discrepancy between different majors is striking. We will see more of this going forward. MIT themselves release the graduating student survey; while this doesn’t differentiate by major, it provides a good overall look at what graduates from MIT can expect. The overall average salary they reported for graduates was $126,841.
Stanford
Stanford is known to have strong programs in myriad majors, and engineering is definitely one of them. This is backed up by the data from College Scorecard, which lets us see how well they do in different engineering majors:
- Electrical Engineering: $154,251
- Engineering, General: $96,205
- Mechanical Engineering: $115,915
While they do have other engineering majors, these are the only ones with earnings reported on College Scorecard. Their own reporting of student outcomes is done by department. Unfortunately, none of the engineering majors track this for graduates, at least publicly. That said, the strong earnings data indicates that graduates from Stanford’s engineering program have no difficulty landing great jobs.
Georgia Tech
Georgia Tech is a public school, but is well known for the strength and rigor of its academic programs, especially engineering. It attracts students from across the country for this reason, not just Georgians. This is backed up by the data collected by College Scorecard, which demonstrates the success of their many engineering majors:
- Aerospace Engineering: $90,670
- Biomedical Engineering: $89,405
- Chemical Engineering: $92,771
- Civil Engineering: $82,297
- Electrical Engineering: $96,402
- Industrial Engineering: $101,070
- Mechanical Engineering: $87,372
Unlike some of the other schools that we’ve looked at, Georgia Tech’s engineering graduates have a similar level of career success regardless of major. They have their own research on this, which is wonderfully comprehensive, breaking down earnings by major and level of degree. These are earnings right out of undergrad, but still give a sense of what graduates can expect from their careers. The median salary across engineering majors was around $100,000, which matches the data we saw from College Scorecard.
UC Berkeley
Berkeley is known for their strength in many academic areas, and engineering is one of them. They have a college specifically dedicated to engineering, and have a history of turning out tech entrepreneurs, with a special program dedicated to just that. Their overall engineering program sees plenty of success from graduates as well, as the data from College Scorecard illustrates:
- Chemical Engineering: $108,607
- Civil Engineering: $91,006
- Electrical Engineering: $202,911
- Mechanical Engineering: $98,455
As we have seen with some other schools, while all of their graduates go on to successful careers, some fields are more lucrative than others. UC Berkeley themselves tracks student outcomes, though they gather different data. This is a useful picture, as you can refine it by both college and major. From this, we can learn that Berkeley does a great job of preparing engineering students for both employment and higher education, though it sadly does not include any income data.
Caltech
Caltech is widely regarded as one of the best schools for engineering, and for good reason. They have an intensive curriculum and significant industry connections, especially with NASA. The Jet Propulsion laboratory was founded by Caltech alums, and is still located right next to their campus. Of course, they do more than aerospace engineering, though the College Scorecard data is unfortunately not reported for any of their engineering majors. The overall median earnings for Caltech graduates is $104,209, which is still quite impressive.
Caltech collects some data themselves, but unfortunately does not differentiate by major. They report a median salary of $110-119,000 for graduates across all majors, slightly higher than the College Scorecard figure, but in the same ballpark. Even numbers of graduates enter employment and continue with higher education, and Caltech does a good job with both.
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
The flagship state school in Illinois, UIUC has a number of very strong programs, but is perhaps strongest in its business and engineering schools. This is reflected in acceptance rates, with the engineering school being far more competitive for admissions than UIUC generally. The college is especially known for its research output, spending significant amounts and publishing great volumes of literature on engineering. Their graduates prosper from this, as demonstrated in the data from College Scorecard:
- Aerospace Engineering: $93,533
- Biomedical Engineering: $94,434
- Chemical Engineering: $93,416
- Civil Engineering: $79,514
- Electrical Engineering: $90,757
- Engineering, General: $84,332
- Mechanical Engineering: $87,705
In addition to this data, UIUC themselves collects and publishes a great deal of data about the success of their graduates. The average salary for newly graduated engineering students is $84,075, with most graduates entering employment directly, though a significant number pursue graduate education. A plurality of graduates find jobs in Illinois.
University of Michigan Ann Arbor
Another flagship state school, the University of Michigan is well known for both their football team and their academic prowess. Their College of Engineering has large and varied offerings, covering most fields of engineering. The college is also notable for its honor code, which students are required to adhere to, and which allows for most exams to be non-proctored. The average graduate of the school is quite successful, but engineering students out earn the average by a significant margin, according to College Scorecard:
- Aerospace Engineering: $97,263
- Biomedical Engineering: $84,138
- Chemical Engineering: $92,027
- Civil Engineering: $85,123
- Electrical Engineering: $97,459
- Mechanical Engineering: $91,187
- Marine Engineering: $80,267
University of Michigan collects a fair amount of data themselves from graduates, and displays it conveniently on their site. A few trends emerge from this; the first is that most graduates immediately enter the workforce, and salary data is in line with that provided by College Scorecard. Second, that students who graduate with master’s degrees outearn those with just a bachelors, and PhD students outearn both. This is well known, but the presentation on their site lays out just how stark the difference is.
Carnegie Mellon University
CMU is well known as a college with a focus on technology, and the strength of their engineering program confirms that. While they do not have the same size as the state schools, they excel in research, and have numerous industry connections through their engineering college. These partnerships help not just with innovation, but in helping students find internships and career opportunities, as can be seen in the data from College Scorecard:
- Biomedical Engineering: $82,463
- Chemical Engineering: $102,617
- Civil Engineering: $93,769
- Electrical Engineering: $149,740
- Mechanical Engineering: $97,151
While these are all successes, we see here the same earnings disparity among majors as observed at other private colleges, though to a somewhat lesser degree. This is born out by CMU’s own data, which is wonderfully comprehensive. The average salary among graduates from the College of Engineering is $90,000, though a slight majority of students pursued higher education, rather than immediately entering the workforce.
Final Thoughts
Engineering is an important field, as engineers are in charge of designing most everything we use, from the roads we navigate to the phones that help us do so. From the career data in this article, we can see that while all engineering careers can allow for success, some are better compensated than others. In addition, graduates from top private colleges in specific majors significantly outearn their peers, though this is not true for every major, or even every private college.
One thing which we did not touch on in this article, but is still good to note, is how competitive entry into engineering programs is, especially top programs. Many students want the chance to become engineers, and competition for seats is fierce at these top schools. If you want advice on your applications, or on finding the right activities to make you stand out to admissions officers, schedule a free consultation today. We have a deep understanding of what admissions officers are looking for in students, and are always happy to hear from you.
