No Surprise: Engineering Tops Most Lucrative College Degrees List

This year’s list of the Top 15 most lucrative college degrees (measured by starting salaries) by the National Association Of Colleges And Employers is in, and the results come as no surprise:  engineering degrees account for 12 of the top 15.  What’s more, even the three non-engineering degrees on the list (computer science, actuarial science, and construction management) all require strong math skills.  Personally, I consider Computer Science to be an engineering degree (Software Engineering is recognized by the IEEE as an engineering discipline) so that would net engineering a solid 13 of 15 positions.

Why Is Engineering So Lucrative?

It used to be all that was required was a college degree to get a decent-paying job;  the course of study didn’t matter so much.  These days, however, Americans colleges are spitting out an increasing number of liberal arts graduates and fewer engineering graduates, proportionally.  To put things in perspective, engineering and computer science each make up a total of about 4% of all college graduates while the social sciences and history account for about 16% each.  That fact, coupled with an increasingly technology-driven economy, has led to fierce competition among companies for top engineering talent.  Obviously, that competition has driven higher salaries for engineers.

Should You Get An Engineering Degree?

There are two schools of thought here.  One is the “do what you love and the money will follow” school.  The idea is that you are unlikely to be successful at anything unless you are passionate about what you’re doing since money alone is generally poor motivation.  The problem with this approach is that sometimes either what you love just isn’t marketable or you don’t have the necessary marketing and sales skills to reach your full economic potential in that field.  Do you know many musicians who are also savvy businessmen?  I don’t.

The other more practical school of thought is that you should do something you like, not necessarily love, that also happens to be lucrative.  Even if you aren’t in love with writing software, if you generally enjoy what you’re doing a majority of the time, you can lead a happy life and be able to afford to do all the things you really want to do.  You may not wake up every morning excited to make it in to work early, but you also won’t dread it.  And a nice house can go a long way towards helping you forget the occasional work-related frustration.

Caveats

Studies like this can be deceiving, however.  I’m sure you noticed there were no medical- or law-related majors listed.  Why?  Because starting salaries for doctors (in residency) are usually quite low.  However, after a few years of residency and a few more years in private practice afterwards, medical graduates really start to rake in the cash.  Conversely, engineers earn a lot of money just out of school but their earning power usually plateaus within 10 years.  Basically, you’re probably making as much money 10 or 15 years out of school as you ever will if you’re an engineer (unless you go into management).  Over their working life, doctors on make far more money than engineers, on average.

The moral of the story is that while you should certainly do something you enjoy doing, it’s not necessarily true that you will eventually become financially successful by doing what you love.  Similarly, you shouldn’t necessarily let lofty starting salaries sway you into an engineering field.  Yes, engineers make very good money ($100K+ in many cases) without having to go to graduate school, but it’s not necessarily the most lucrative profession out there.  Besides, math is just plain hard for some people.