<p>According to Stanford's data, in 2004, the median salary for MSEE's was 75, for MSCS was 78k.</p>
<p>All my friends took jobs in Silicon Valley, where salaries tend to be higher. The offers they got from outside California were in the 70s.</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon engineering salary stats: <a href="http://www.studentaffairs.cmu.edu/career/employ/salary/cit.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.studentaffairs.cmu.edu/career/employ/salary/cit.html</a></p>
<p>Electrical and Computer - $58,996
Chemical - $57,544</p>
<p>Jebus - I just checked out the "high" for EE at CMU, it was 89k.</p>
<p>It IS possible, however unlikely, to make 6 figures with only a B.S. and not being in management..my dad does it.</p>
<p>Getting 6 figures with just an engineering BS, sans a management job, is quite possible, although it seems to me that it is mostly dependent on what kind of job you have and where you live. For example, almost all engineers that I know who work in Silicon Valley who have just a BS, but who have at least 5 years of experience, make 6 figures, or very close to it. Then there are those petroleum engineers who spend a lot of their life on offshore oil platforms, who make sizable incomes (but live a highly stressful lifestyle).</p>
<p>You've also got to keep in mind that when you factor in cost-of-living, 65K in a place like Houston is equal to:</p>
<p>68K in St. Louis
72K in Atlanta
78K in Chicago
86K in Philadelphia
102K in Orange County
135K in San Francisco
and 164K in NYC...!!!</p>
<p>Good thing to remember when you're looking for a job...!!</p>
<p>You've also got to keep in mind that when you factor in cost-of-living, 65K in a place like Houston is equal to:</p>
<p>68K in St. Louis
72K in Atlanta
78K in Chicago
86K in Philadelphia
102K in Orange County
135K in San Francisco
and 164K in NYC...!!!</p>
<p>Is Houston really that cheap??? I'm moving down there next week and even though I know cost of living is cheaper, I didn't know it's THAT much cheaper. Houston, after all, is still one of the biggest cities in US.</p>
<p>It's crazy-ludicrous cheap! Texas, in general, is a nice place to live with a low cost-of-living. Problem is that most of y'all Yankees can't deal with the heat. ;)</p>
<p>heat isn't a problem for me since i'm not a yankee...im on the next flight ;)</p>
<p>i used to live in texas. we had ~2500 sq ft. house that cost around 130k we moved to chicago illinois, and our house was 1600 sq ft. (not including basement) and was about 250k. now we live in california (somewhat north, near sacramento) and the house we live in now is 3500-4000 sq ft. and was recently appraised for $1.1 million. so... this is within the course of about 5 years, so this is definitely not due to inflation.</p>
<p>While I agree that cost-of-living calculations are important, you have to keep something in mind. Places that are expensive to live are expensive for a reason. It's not like somebody just arbitrarily decided that, say, San Francisco would be more expensive than Oakland. The truth is that certain places are simply more desirable to live in than others, and the costs simply reflect that fact. That's why beachfront property is expensive, because the fact is, a lot of people want to live on the beach. Similarly, SF is more expensive than Oakland because, quite frankly, more people want to live in SF than in Oakland. If that wasn't true, then the prices would inevitably adjust according to free market principles.</p>
<p>Well, chicken-and-egg. When you've got a company that's in a nicer place like San Francisco, then you've got to pay your workers a similarly inflated rate in order to attract them to that place. It's not <em>as</em> inflated as the actual price of living there, but it's gonna be affected by the cost of living in the area.</p>
<p>I live in Houston... yeah, housing is really cheap here. There's no real barriers to it growing, and there's a fairly good highway system, so the suburbs just get bigger and bigger. Granted, your house won't have a basement because it's in a floodplain, but you can get a nice 4 bedroom house in the suburbs for 180k or less, depending on if you want a planned community with lots of amenities, or something a bit more rural.</p>
<p>It's hot. Too hot. I want to leave the heat. Other than that, Houston's a nice city, but not very picturesque, lots of flat areas and concrete and overpasses, not beautiful California vistas. And the hour away beach isn't very nice.</p>
<p>Well... most houses in TX don't have basements, but that's primarily because of the soil type in the area...</p>
<p>Sorry! Structures nerd.</p>
<p>But yes, definitely visit and see if you like it before you move there. I personally miss the good Tex-Mex, plentiful shopping, skyscrapers, and sports teams. =)</p>
<p>Thanks for correcting me, aibarr. All I know is that my parents have to rent a storage place to keep all the junk that used to be in my basement.</p>
<p>which area is nice to live in around Houston?? I'll be working at around Stafford so I've been looking at places near there. I've heard that Sugarland is a decent area, but don't really know much more beyond that.</p>
<p>I feel as though we're rather off topic... but I live in Sugar Land. Most of it is fairly nice, boring suburbia. Lots of building and planned communities. ; in the process of widening highways in the area. If you have any questions in particular about it, message me.</p>
<p>Sugarland is nice. West U is nice. River Oaks is nice.</p>