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<p>It’s a guess, a rough estimate based on what I hear from people. I didn’t claim it to be a statistic. Your choice whether to trust it or not. </p>
<p>Let me also just clarify, I said the average person in the top 1/3. In case there was a misunderstanding there. Not everybody. </p>
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I feel like everyone on this thread is a college student and doesn’t fully understand the career progression of any of these careers. Engineers start out at high starting salary (~$70-80K) but they plateau out quickly and will not cross the $100K threshold unless they have a masters degree or MBA and move up into management. Google doesn’t pay six figures to software engineers with bachelors degree in CS/Engineering; you’ve been misled if you think this is the case. The work-lifestyle balance is better with engineering though since you only have to work 40-50 hours a week.</p>
<p>Finance, on the other hand, is much more lucrative. With bonuses, a 1st year analyst can make $120-140K, a 2nd year can pull in $160-180K, and if they move into private equity after their 2 year stint than they can be earning $300-400K per anum. </p>
<p>Management Consulting has a lower floor than Engineering in terms of salary but a higher ceiling. Graduates of MBB’s analyst program can transition into PE firms like Golden Gate, Advent, FFL, etc. and make the same money as former ibankers but they can also choose to do corporate strategy roles at Fortune 500 companies that can net them in the $100s with a better work schedule (less hours on the job). The skillset you gain from consulting is very versatile and top-tier MC jobs are looked on more favorably by elite business schools than even Goldman/MS/JPM i-banking.</p>
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<p>Yeah, they do. They do starting in fact. A friend of mine worked it out, said it was about 150K equivalent with the all things considered compensation your first year at Google.</p>
<p>You are literally just fully wrong.</p>
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I like how you state that the salary as $70-80k(which is true for the median), even though you quoted me about the top 5%. </p>
<p>Look here,
<a href=“Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan”>Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan;
the range base salary is as high as $110k for bachelors, which means there are a few students who do get 100k+. I know of a student who now works at Microsoft and gets paid 6 figures.</p>
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<p>Microsoft isn’t the only place. Google and Facebook and all the other desirable Silicon Valley companies do. If you annualize the starting bonus (I think it was 40K for 4 years + 90K starting salary last I heard) Amazon does as well. Even where I work (which is likely a company you’ve never heard of) pays now 6 figure in starting salary alone, and it seems it’s not a very hard company to get a job at.</p>
<p>A lot of people on this board seem to have the misinformed idea that all engineering majors pay about the same, it’s total nonsense. The difference between Computer Science/Computer Engineering and something like Mechanical Engineering is huge. </p>
<p>CE is computer engineering which is a different major than CS, computer science. CS is through either LSA or CoE, though would be called CSE though CoE and CS-LSA though LSA. CSE and CS-LSA are pretty much the same, but CE is different, it’s like a blend of CS and EE.</p>
<p>It just is. </p>
<p>
<a href=“CS-LSA vs CS-Eng | Computer Science and Engineering at Michigan”>Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan;
<p>A lot of people say that CS isn’t really considered engineering(and it probably isn’t). At many other universities, CS is listed under the mathematics and sciences college instead of the engineering one. CSE doesn’t even really integrate programming with engineering except for maybe ENGR 100, but you can take technical electives that are close to CE.</p>
<p>I’m not sure which came CS came first, probably the LSA version because Dick Costolo has a BS and graduated in 1985.</p>
<p>I am obviously speaking from the perspective of a top kid in CS vs a top kid in Ross.</p>
<p>When I say CS gives the higher ceiling, it’s because there are jobs in high finance that only top CS majors can get, where you can make significantly better money than your traditional banking/PE job (occasionally a lot more in some cases), while working half the hours. This could be high frequency trading (which has become a lot less profitable in the last 2 years) or prop trading at the high end at a place like Getco/Jane Street, or even statistical arbitrage shops like RenTech/Two Sigma.</p>
<p>On the flip side, whatever job a Ross kid can get, a CS major can theoretically get as well, and some kids did end up taking those jobs. But it’s going to be harder because typically only sales and trading/technology of banks recruit the COE, but not the investment banking. Now in my mind sales and trading is at least equal if not better than investment banking in desirability since pay is similar and you work a lot less, but you give up the flexibility/exit ops (I have only done S&T, not IBD so I could be biased; I went a different path post graduation though). Technology people at a traditional investment bank are treated like crap. I would never advice it.</p>
<p>Effectively, for someone only interested in the best jobs in finance and dont have a preference in terms of what that job is, CS gives you a higher ceiling because it gives you the skill set the best paying jobs absolutely need that you are never going to gain from Ross, but Ross gives you a higher floor because it is a better bet in making into high finance in general.</p>