Most engineering PhD’s aren’t trying for a faculty job - most go into industry. As to the pay, most engineering PhD’s start in industry in the ~$90k range, so even with pretty modest raises “6 digits” is something they can see in a pretty short time. I have not personally met any engineering PhD’s who had trouble finding lucrative work, and all of the “post-doc slaves” I met were internationals. In fact, I asked my prospective advisor at Northwestern about the necessity of a post-doc and stated outright that American engineering PhD’s don’t do post-docs unless (a) they are dead-set on academia and yet (b) didn’t do enough in grad school to be competitive.</p>
<p>my mom got her job as a computer scientist for a defense contracting company out of college and is now senior VP making about a million dollars a year</p>
<p>Is it just me or a lot of people answering with “my dad makes X”, “my mom makes Y”, “my uncle makes Z”? I know this is a college board, but other than a few, arent there some people who would like to share their own salary history? This thread is making me think about Arnold saying “Who is your daddy and what does he do?”</p>
<p>Navy - my base salary is ~$80k, plus overtime and the occasional bonus. I graduated in 2006 and have worked for the same company the whole time.</p>
<p>That is false. Even B.S. level engineers have median salaries just shy of $100k according to BLS, and that includes both entry-level and senior-level positions. I would have to find my source I used to have (don’t have time right now) but Ph.D. engineers on average tend to start out in the mid $80k’s if I remember right. It doesn’t take much growth to reach that 6 figure level.</p>
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<p>This is actually a very true point. In fact, there is such a large disparity that some schools have been giving diversity-based fellowships to white Americans because they are so underrepresented in academia. This is especially true in areas where there is a lot of government work that requires U.S. Citizenship.</p>
<p>The fact that a top student at a top school can go into finance with their engineering degree and make $100k+ starting as opposed to starting lower than that even with a Ph.D. is what lures the top U.S. students away from graduate school. It is just a case where our society values people who move money around without adding value to the economy more than it values those who innovate and add value. It is pretty sad in my opinion.</p>
<p>Those of us sticking around for an engineering or science Ph.D. are in it for the love of the subject, not for money.</p>
<p>A family friend is a (retired) director of engineering at a major communications company. He made about $400k-500k a year. However, he did a lot of administration work along with engineering, so be prepared to be half-engineer half-businessman if you want to make the big bucks.</p>
<p>When you get a Ph.D. in engineering (and most sciences to my knowledge), you don’t pay for it… at all. As long as you are doing a research-based degree, almost 100% of Ph.D. students get funding from either an assistantship or a fellowship (those usually go chronologically in that order). Sure, those assistantships aren’t huge (I am certainly not going out and buying a Benz right now) but they are easily enough to get by on with proper money management. I am living better right now on my meager salary than I ever did during undergrad.</p>
<p>Getting just an M.S. is more of a crapshoot, but if you have expressed interest in a Ph.D., it usually isn’t that difficult to secure funding. I had it months before I ever even set foot on campus from several different programs to which I was accepted.</p>
<p>Yeah, I didn’t get any fellowships the first time around (likely since I didn’t have a graduate GPA yet and my undergrad GPA was not impressive), but I am MUCH more optimistic this time around. Meanwhile, I will just have to continue living off of my assistantship. I am still a poor grad student, but I was a “poor-er” undergrad student just a couple years ago.</p>
<p>I would be lying if I didn’t say I have thought about what it would have been like had I accepted one of the $60k plus incentives offers after undergrad. I figure I would likely not like my job as much but have much cooler stuff. I’d say I made the right choice. =)</p>
<p>Stupid Homer…i hate that guy…stop being a hater.
Engineering is a great career and is in no way one of the worst ones out there. Get a life fool and stop trying to make engineering look bad to other people.</p>