BETHLEHEM, PA—Engineering degrees account for four of the five most highly paid majors among the college Class of 2010, according to a new study conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). 

NACE’s Summer 2010 Salary Survey shows that petroleum engineers earned the highest starting salary offer—$74,799—followed by chemical engineers ($65,628). (See Figure 1.) 

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.”

NACE will continue to track the movement of starting salary offers to Class of 2010 graduates through its Salary Survey report. The final report for the Class of 2010 will be published in September.  

* The most current degrees conferred data from NCES are for 2007-08.

About NACE: Since 1956, the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) has been the leading source of information about the employment of college graduates. For more information, visit www.naceweb.org. NACE maintains a virtual press room for the media at www.naceweb.org/pressreleases/.