<p>I checked this site out, which shows the starting salaries of recently graduated undergrad students...</p>
<p>The min for IE is 15k.....</p>
<p>A co-op or internship hourly rate could conceivably be that low.</p>
<p>I think you are looking too much into it. Judging by the rest of the numbers on that page, it looks as if only one kid reported such a low income. Additionally, since those salaries are most likely self-reported, it could be a typo or not really an IE job. With such limited information available, it is not possible to look much further into that number.</p>
<p>it's a survey, you put however much you want down!</p>
<p>Just because he's got an engineering degree doesn't mean anybody wants to hire him... and then he got desperate.</p>
<p>It's one person. AND it doesn't state that it's actually an engineering position, just that he or she graduated with an engineering degree. For all we know, that person could be working at McDonalds (and not as a manager).</p>
<p>It's self-reported anyway - [s]he could have just thought it would be funny to report that. Or maybe [s]he was attending graduate school with a $15,000/year living expenses stipend, and misinterpreted that the survey was meant for full-time employment outside of grad school.</p>
<p>there is no way that a graduate from a top 20 engineering school is actually making an annual salary of $15,000. That's ridiculous. Assuming a 40 hour work week, this equates to an hourly wage of only $7.21. In some states, this isn't even minimum wage!!</p>
<p>If you are self-employed, you might only make a modest income while you build up your business. It could be a job outside of engineering. It could be part-time earnings or partial full-time earnings.</p>
<p>Wow. IE interns get paid over 40 bucks an hour!! that's amazing</p>
<p>"[s]he was attending graduate school with a $15,000/year living expenses stipend"</p>
<p>proabably yea....</p>