<p>No, the starting salary for some engineers is $60,000+.</p>
<p>That’s IF you finish your engineering degree and IF you’re making the average starting salary. Both risks to start off accumulating debt as a freshman. Not one most should take IMO.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Electrical. mechanical, and many other in-demand engineers average at least $60K coming out of school. </p>
<p>Check out these numbers for recent Georgia Tech graduates:</p>
<p>[2012</a> Career and Salary Survey (Fall)](<a href=“Georgia Tech | External Redirect Landing Page”>Georgia Tech | External Redirect Landing Page)</p>
<p>I said “some” engineers. </p>
<p>
Well…I would assume that you would’ve finished your engineering degree if you have a starting salary. ;)</p>
<p>Engineers wouldn’t be “lucky” start out at $40,000. The low 10% for engineers is about $45,000.</p>
<p>You missed my point, ni. You accumulate debt before you graduate (obviously) and it’s a gamble that only pays off if you finish your degree. That’s why it’s a dumb gamble IMO.</p>
<p>Also, my response was to crd, not you. It’s a pita to quote from my phone</p>
<p>Ah, I understand. I retract my post then. :)</p>
<p>But this:
in response to this:
Still stands.</p>
<p>If it’s likely to pay off it’s an investment. If it’s unlikely to pay off, it’s a gamble. That’s really the difference between the two. </p>
<p>An investment is still a calculated risk which means there is still a chance that it won’t pay off. But if your best guess from doing the calculations based on the best information that you have now shows that it’s likely to payoff, than it is an investment.</p>
<p>Ok so I will agree that an engineering starting salary could be $60,000 but because of all of the unemployment are those jobs really available to new graduates? The last 2 engineers we hired got $65k but we hired the guys with 10 and 15 years experience instead of the new college grads. So while starting salaries may be good they are competing with experienced people that are out of work. I am in HR and I am still shocked at the overly qualified people applying for the entry level jobs I post. It"s tough to give the kid a shot sometimes when our other option is someone who can hit the ground running and contribute from day one with no training.</p>
<p>wow, didn’t expect so many responses. I really appreciate the perspective 
I’ve never paid for anything or had a job in my life, so that’s why I was wondering</p>
<p>If you never had a job or paid for anything, then you have no idea what being stressed out is</p>
<p>And The “Most Narrow-minded Comment” of the Day goes to…</p>
<p>Plenty of people have an idea what “stressed out” is and have not had a job nor had to pay for anything.</p>
<p>^true, but I think crytbn34 is saying that having to get a job and pay for things on your own is much more stress than what HSers go through. given that I’ve heard that so many times, and from people who went to really good colleges, I’ll take his word for it</p>
<p>One of my friends recently hired a great guy who had many years of experience and TWO masters in engineering for a job crunching numbers in a state department. The job was only temporary and came with no benefits. She had to fight to pay him $20/hour (others wanted to offer less). Fortunately for him, another govt dept offered him a permanent full time position and hired him away–for about $50K and benefits. Still not the $60k starting salary some claim engineers earn. S had many engineering classmates with bachelors and masters degrees scrambling for ANY job in 2010. Am not sure things have improved much. Debt is limiting and dangerous, especially in times when there are limited jobs.</p>
<p>HImom - I agree with you 100%. I don’t know where these starting salaries come from. I know way too many recent college grads (last 2-5 years) who are taking anything they can get - and often not in their field. These are often jobs that they don’t even need a college degree for - labor jobs and other things they could have got right out of high school. I don’t know who is getting these $60K starting salaries, but it’s definitely no one (or very few) in my corner of Connecticut.</p>
<p>My firm in the Boston area pays new EE BS grads in the high 60s to low 70s and we have plenty of competitors who do also. </p>
<p>It’s pretty hard to get these jobs though. You have to be way above average. Just graduating isn’t going to do it. You have to be able to demonstrate capabilities.</p>
<p>New CS BS grads can get between $90k and $100K in Seattle.</p>
<p>The jobs are out there. Like CRD said, you have to be above average. If a student knows the job market is tough and they have a nice chunk of debt accumulating, I don’t see why they wouldn’t get a stellar GPA, have experience through interships and co-ops in order to get their starting salary of $60,000. </p>
<p>You reap what you sow.</p>
<p>First of all, you don’t borrow all of the debt at once. You typically have four increments. </p>
<p>At the beginning, everyone should expect to do well (what I mean is assume that your likelihood of doing well is high, and thus you can afford to take more risk), and should work really hard at doing so. Each year, the calculation could be redone. If you’re really doing poorly, transfer to a cheaper school instead of continuing to dig the hole bigger. </p>
<p>People who are modest and respect the difficulty of classes, develop good study habits and seek help early and often tend to do well. People who are cocky and wait until the last minute to do assignments tend to be surprised when they can’t finish them and they find themselves hopelessly buried. </p>
<p>Investing in yourself may mean borrowing money, but it also means making the time commitment to learn how to study effectively. This skill is not always necessary in high school and it’s a learned skill.</p>
<p>By definition, there are MANY who are only above average in the debt they accumulate. If lots of folks are above average, the average floats upwards. My S was above average at an excellent program, was an author in journal articles, did internships, and got great refs but was not offered ANY jobs much above $60K in his EE field. Firms from all over the country recruited there. The job market is currently very mixed and there are no guarantees that things will improve in four years, so debt should be shouldered very cautiously. </p>
<p>Our paper this morning pointed out the excess of newly graduated nurses with no jobs while there is shortage of EXPERIENCED nurses.</p>