How common is it to get six figure offer right out of undergrad?
Not common, though can happen. I’ve seen it for good CS majors most often, but it could also be more common in high COL areas. Most I know don’t want to live in those.
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I’ve only seen six figures with CS.
Don’t know how common but someone published IU Kelley stats recently and a few of the disciplines show six figure salaries. How many or where the job is located I don’t know but it happens somewhat, even beyond CS I’d assume.
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IB can get there, including bonuses.
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I Banking and Capital Markets analysts salaries this year amongst bulge bracket firms are in the mid $90s. Most analysts have been provided relocation money and will receive a truncated bonus within an HR predetermined band. All in the vast majority will be in and around $110-125k although bonus pools and security given the instability of the economic environment leave this TBD.
At funded start ups the typical salary is in the $65-85k range depending on the circumstances. Obviously founders and early employees will benefit from the appreciation of enterprise value in further rounds that can easily be worth 6 figures once monetized. Less up front but significant upside.
VC and PE typically start analysts in the $90s as well but aren’t as limited within defined bonus pools after the first year.
Management consulting I don’t have first hand experience but I am told the big 3 all pay in a manner that is competitive relative to the aforementioned three tracks that seemingly compete amongst the same applicant pools.
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My daughter has a few friends/acquaintances from high school who just graduated college and already have 6 figure salaries (jobs in banking, CS, and management consulting) and all are based in high COL areas (NYC, San Francisco, LA, and Washington DC).
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A FAANG offer letter I’ve seen (didn’t require a CS degree) was $120K, structured in the first year as $70K base, $40K signing bonus and $10K stock grant. It wasn’t specific to Silicon Valley.
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Between sign on bonus, relocation bonus, performance bonus + salary, some engineers are hitting the six figure mark.
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I mentored a young man whose first job out of college paid him six figures in 2013. NYC, network developer. My SIL works for a well known firm, doing placement for tech positions. I’ll have to ask him what average salary is for new grads.
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It was common for CS and IB grads for the past few years. With hiring freeze at big tech don’t know if it’s still common now
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Here’s a Forbes article discussing average salaries based upon education, age, and majors. CS has the highest projected average salary at 75,900. I assume (but don’t know) that it doesn’t include bonuses. I suspect HCOL areas to have higher salaries than LCOL areas, but of course, the COL itself likely balances those out to be more even for actual “spending money” past lodging and food:
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That was the salary range for CS 5-6 years ago, not including RSUs and bonus, from Boston to the Bay Area, but not SF.
Base salary for MBB (McKinsey, Bain, BCG) consulting for those with only an undergraduate degree is now $110-$112. Base for MBAs at those firms is $192-$195.
No differences in base compensation based on location, however.
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Apparently top 20% of UCLA CS grads make $145k starting (statistic they showed at the engineering fair, have no source to back it up with)
IB analyst starting salary for class of 2023 is $110k plus bonus plus signing bonus. The $110K came about when Goldman Sachs raised salaries last year and other firms (including second tier) matched.
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Total comp is comfortably above 100k for several CS, IB, Other finance, and Consulting jobs. Perhaps not the averages though.
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These school outcome surveys are usually self-reported and entirely optional, no way to varify.
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Incidentally those are reasonable sounding numbers. The self reported numbers at my son’s school are comparable, look very plausible given where the kids get placed and what individual companies are known to pay fresh out of school.
I’ve shared this here before. You can scroll down and look by major. This is mostly not a school effect – more based on major.
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You can always check College Scorecard, which uses IRS data for recent graduates who received federal financial aid to show median pay levels. For example: College Scorecard | College Scorecard and College Scorecard | College Scorecard .
However, the major-specific information may not be available for small majors (common at small schools).
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