Spotlight Online for College Employment and Recruiting Professionals, August 4, 2009
What’s the number one reason why a student accepts—or rejects—an offer?
Results from NACE’s 2009 Student Survey* show that salary played a major role. Other factors contributing to the decision to take a job: benefits, job location, and reputation of the company.
Especially for hard-to-find majors, getting to “yes” can carry a high price tag. For example, just a handful of bachelor’s degrees went to petroleum engineering grads, who garnered the highest starting salary—$83,121—as employers had to compete for the limited supply. Chemical engineers came in second at $64,902; although in numbers chemical engineers outpace petroleum engineers by 10 to 1, they account for just a fraction of the overall degrees conferred in any given year.
Top salaries
Discipline
|
Starting Salary Offer |
# of Degrees Conferred |
| Petroleum Engineering |
$83,121 |
450 |
| Chemical Engineering |
$64,902 |
4,492 |
| Mining Engineering |
$64,404 |
129 |
| Computer Engineering |
$61,738 |
4,620 |
| Computer Science |
$61,407 |
8,496 |
Source: Summer 2009 Salary Survey (salary data); National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics 2008 (degrees conferred data for 2006-07, most current data available). All data are for bachelor’s degrees.
* The 2009 Student Survey was conducted from February 19 through April 30, 2009; more than 35,000 students from more than 840 colleges and universities nationwide—including more than 16,500 graduating seniors—participated. The survey report will be available in the fall.