STEM Majors Projected to Earn Top Salaries from Class of 2019

Bachelor’s degree graduates earning STEM degrees are expected to earn the highest starting salaries from the college Class of 2019, according to results of a new survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers.
NACE’s Winter 2019 Salary Survey found that graduates with engineering ($69,188), computer science ($67,539), and math and sciences degrees ($62,177) are once again projected to be the top-paid graduates.
Also coming in near the top of the list are business ($57,657) and social sciences ($57,310) majors.
The news is generally positive for Class of 2019 graduates overall at this early juncture in the salary reporting cycle.
All reported disciplines are expected to see gains, albeit relatively small ones, except one—humanities—and that loss is just -0.1%.
Agriculture and natural resources majors are projected to see the greatest gain in starting salary at 4.1%.
With an expected increase of 4%, engineering majors follow closely behind, while the average salary for computer science majors is anticipated to be 2.3% higher than their counterparts from the Class of 2018.
Average Salary by Discipline, Bachelor’s Degrees

Source: Winter 2019 Salary Survey, National Association of Colleges and Employers

Survey methodology: The Winter 2019 Salary Survey contains annual salary projections for Class of 2019 college graduates. The figures reported are for base salaries only and do not include bonuses, commissions, fringe benefits, or overtime rates. The data contained in NACE’s Winter 2018 Salary Survey were collected from August 1, 2018, through December 3, 2018. A total of 186 surveys were returned for a 20% response rate.