Bachelor's · earnings grade

Is a Computer Engineering degree worth it?

Graduates earn a median $72,828 two years after finishing, more than 96% of bachelor's majors. Measured across 380 US programmes by the Department of Education — real graduate pay, not survey answers.

The verdict on the money

Yes, on the money — this is one of the best-paying majors at this level in the country.

Median earnings $72,828 2 years after finishing · per graduate

Typical range $63,749–$75,804 middle half of US programmes

Over no degree +$33,308 vs $39,520 high-school median

Graduates a year 12,137 380 programmes

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

#	University	1 yr out	2 yrs out	3 yrs out	Graduates/yr
1	University of Washington-Tacoma Campus	$137,584	$120,252	$152,099	9
2	University of Washington-Bothell Campus	$137,584	$120,252	$152,099	20
3	University of Washington-Seattle Campus	$137,584	$120,252	$152,099	40
4	Santa Clara University cost & debt at this university →	$83,523	$103,449	$131,051	83
5	Princeton University cost & debt at this university →	$122,809	$103,078	$181,687	—
6	Duke University cost & debt at this university →	$108,817	$97,071	$117,262	110
7	University of California-Los Angeles cost & debt at this university →	$110,139	$97,071	$111,727	62
8	California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo cost & debt at this university →	$91,493	$93,964	$106,798	129
9	University of Southern California cost & debt at this university →	$106,621	$90,602	$100,711	34
10	University of Virginia-Main Campus cost & debt at this university →	$84,682	$90,146	$101,904	58
11	Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology cost & debt at this university →	$74,155	$90,049	$97,902	63
12	Northeastern University	$88,529	$89,564	$99,566	132

What this figure does and does not tell you

Two medians are worth separating. $72,828 is what the typical graduate earns — each programme counted in proportion to how many students it graduates. $71,015 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 bachelor's major in this dataset reports $36,497, so Computer Engineering sits above the middle by $36,331.

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.

Computer Engineering at other levels

Master's — $94,408 (A)

Scholarships for Computer Engineering students

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

Faculty of Science and Engineering Scholarships at University... Hubei Provincial Scholarship Programs in China, 2017-18 28 Research Scholarships at Polytechnic University of Turin in... Fully Funded International Fellowship at ADA University in Aze... Fully-Funded GHC International Scholarships in USA, 2019 Dora scholarship Estonia- Tallinn University of Technology 201...

See all Computer Engineering scholarships →

Study Computer Engineering Programmes listed on ScholarshipsAds.

Computer Engineering — Bilkent University Computer Engineering — Bilkent University Electrical and Computer Engineering — University of Toronto Electrical and Computer Engineering — University of Toronto Electrical and Computer Engineering — University of Toronto Engineering in Computer Engineering — Thompson Rivers University

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

Systems Engineering — $74,279 Petroleum Engineering — $74,577 Naval Architecture — $81,997

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Computer Engineering: the questions people ask

How much do Computer Engineering graduates earn?

The median bachelor's graduate earns $72,828 two years after finishing (weighting each programme by how many students it graduates), across 180 US programmes that publish the figure. One year out it is $70,103.