Master's · earnings grade

Is a Aerospace Engineering degree worth it?

Graduates earn a median $90,856 two years after finishing, more than 90% of master's majors. Measured across 72 US programmes by the Department of Education — real graduate pay, not survey answers.

B

The verdict on the money

Yes — graduates earn more than most majors at this level.

Median earnings $90,856 2 years after finishing · per graduate
Typical range $81,702–$93,520 middle half of US programmes
Over no degree +$51,336 vs $39,520 high-school median
Graduates a year 2,402 72 programmes

Where a Aerospace Engineering degree pays best US programmes ranked on their own graduates' median earnings two years out.

#University1 yr out2 yrs out3 yrs outGraduates/yr
1 University of Washington-Seattle Campus $101,045 $104,749 $115,913 43
2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology cost & debt at this university → $109,955 $104,749 $109,672 68
3 University of Maryland-College Park cost & debt at this university → not published $101,746 not published 26
4 Cornell University cost & debt at this university → not published $99,517 not published 21
5 University of Southern California cost & debt at this university → $99,666 $95,860 $106,965 141
6 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor cost & debt at this university → $90,479 $93,520 $97,808 153
7 Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus cost & debt at this university → $90,098 $90,983 $100,683 213
8 Stanford University cost & debt at this university → $108,457 $90,856 $107,477 58
9 University of Colorado Boulder cost & debt at this university → $85,254 $89,641 $97,860 157
10 California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo cost & debt at this university → not published $88,639 not published 24
11 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute cost & debt at this university → $80,073 $88,506 not published 23
12 Purdue University-Main Campus cost & debt at this university → $91,895 $84,653 $101,018 174

What this figure does and does not tell you

Two medians are worth separating. $90,856 is what the typical graduate earns — each programme counted in proportion to how many students it graduates. $88,573 is what the typical programme reports, counting a class of twenty the same as a class of two thousand. The weighted figure is higher here, which means the larger programmes in this field are the better-paying ones.

It is the median of what real graduates of this exact major earned, taken from tax records two years after they completed. It is not a starting salary, not an average of job adverts, and not a projection. The median master's major in this dataset reports $54,713, so Aerospace Engineering sits above the middle by $36,143.

Two years is early in a career. Fields with long training pipelines — medicine, law, research — look weaker at this point than they will at ten, while trades and applied technical fields peak sooner. Read a low figure in a long-pipeline subject as "slow start", not "bad degree".

There is no debt figure here on purpose. The Department of Education publishes earnings by field of study but not borrowing, so nobody can honestly tell you the debt of a specific major. Debt is published per institution — that is where our university cost pages carry it.

Aerospace Engineering at other levels

Bachelor's — $65,029 (B)

Scholarships for Aerospace Engineering students

Whatever the subject pays, the money you do not borrow is the money you keep.

Faculty of Aerospace Engineering Scholarships in Netherlands,... IIT Postdoctoral Fellowships for Indian and Foreign Applicants... ISAE-SUPAERO Fully Funded Master Scholarships in France, 2017-... MIT Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme in Portugal, 2018 100 ISE Scholarships for Foreign Students in Thailand, 2018 IAWA Scholarships at Technical University of Delft in Netherla...
See all Aerospace Engineering scholarships →

Study Aerospace Engineering Programmes listed on ScholarshipsAds.

Aerospace Engineering — Toronto Metropolitan Unive... Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering — Princeton University Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering — Princeton University Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering — Princeton University Aeronautics and Astronautics Aerospace Enginee... — Purdue University Aerospace Engineering with Foundation Year (Ho... — Sheffield Hallam Universit...

Majors that pay more at this level Closest first — useful if you are still choosing.

Engineering — $88,982 Pharmacy — $92,124 Electrical Engineering — $92,632 Computer Science — $94,408 Computer Engineering — $94,408 Nursing — $96,126

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Aerospace Engineering: the questions people ask

How much do Aerospace Engineering graduates earn?
The median master's graduate earns $90,856 two years after finishing (weighting each programme by how many students it graduates), across 20 US programmes that publish the figure. One year out it is $86,822.
Is a Aerospace Engineering degree worth it?
Yes — graduates earn more than most majors at this level. The median graduate earns $51,336 a year more than a US worker whose highest qualification is a high-school diploma.
What is the salary range for Aerospace Engineering?
Half of US programmes report medians between $81,702 and $93,520. Where you study moves this figure more than most applicants expect.
How many people graduate in Aerospace Engineering each year?
About 2,402 students complete a master's in this field each year across 72 US programmes.
Does this include student debt?
No — and deliberately. The Department of Education publishes earnings by field of study but not debt, so any "debt by major" figure you see elsewhere is an estimate. Debt is published per institution, which is why our university pages carry it and this page does not.
All degree grades Highest paying majors Most popular majors University costs & payback

Classified by the Department of Education as Aerospace, Aeronautical, and Astronautical/Space Engineering (CIP 1402). Source: US Department of Education College Scorecard, field-of-study earnings (median earnings of graduates who received federal financial aid, measured 1–3 years after completion). Figures are per major and credential level, pooled across US programmes. Information only, not financial advice.