<p>A handful of companies like microsoft/yahoo/google are starting to match the banking/consulting salaries. Maybe this trend will continue? Maybe other companies will follow this trend? This doesn't seem likely after all the waves of outsourcing that have gone by and will soon go by. I don't think engineering companies will ever fully compensate top grads. Engineering is an extremely good deal if you go to a mediocre school because you will start out at a 50K+ salary. It's like going from a lower end spectrum to a solid, slightly upper middle class class salary by the age of 24. For the guy who was born in a farm and barely graduated high school, this is a sweet deal. But for those of us who get into top colleges like UIUC/Mich/Mudd/Cornell and work very hard, it's only fair that we ask for better options and a better pay but this isn't going to happen. If anything, I've heard of several Mich/UIUC engineers get very grade deflated GPA's who're now having trouble MATCHING jobs found by typical college grads in engineering. It's pretty scary actually. Today, I was talking to a guy who's graduating as a senior at cooper and he's struggling to get a job (he has below a 3.0 in chemE as does most of the graduating class).</p>