A new report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) identifies which types of college grads will receive the highest average starting salaries.
NACE's Spring 2008 Salary Survey reports that graduates with degrees in engineering and computer science fields will receive the highest starting salary offers.
Here are the top five majors as reported by NACE, along with average starting salary offers:
- Chemical Engineering $63,616
- Computer Engineering $59,962
- Computer Science $59,873
- Industrial/Manufacturing Engineering $58,252
- Aerospace/Aeronautical/Astronautical Engineering $57,999
NACE reports that "many disciplines have seen their starting salaries offers rise by 10 percent or more over the last year," noting that in Spring 2007, the average offer to computer science graduates was $52,177. This year's $59,873 average offer to computer science grads reflects a 14.7 percent increase over 2007.
Offers for college grads with degrees in construction science/management also experienced a significant increase (13.4 percent; from $46,506 to $52,745) as did grads with degrees in psychology (10.7 percent; from $30,751 to $34,054) among others.
However, not all types of grads are seeing these types of gains. NACE reports that many of the business disciplines "have seen little movement in their average starting salary offers," noting that business administration and management graduates saw their offer increase just 0.3 percent (from $44,048 to $44,195) over Spring 2008.
For more information, visit NACEWeb.org.
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