Poll: College Grads - How much do you make?

[SerraYX]

MrBond: that's interesting... I'm a freshman taking a Chemistry major. Didn't want the engineering degree in case I want to do pre-med. Assuming I do well, things look up

 

[randal]

Originally posted by: Shiva112
Graduated last may (2002) with a Comp Sci degree. Currently making $51,500 working as a Software Engineer in Denver, Colorado.


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get wasted together and have the time of our lives.

My Beast

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Whoa! I host your webpage! rock

randal

 

[freebee]

Make 40 grand or so...bonuses variable...prolly only a coupla grand more. Newbie outta college, Manager at everyone's pricematching capital...and my first real job.

Gotta get the MBA in two years...and saving for 1 s2000/vette/or Suburban. Or maybe 4 door accord, depending on insurance.

 

[Ameesh]

Originally posted by: Garion
You really want to know? $125,000 this year including salary and bonuses, more if you cound stock options. I'm a Senior Network Architect with eight years experience and a degree in Computer Science. I work for one of the largest banks in the US, focusing on Internet and Security. We're in Seattle, where the cost of living is pretty high.

- G

are you 8 years out of college?

 

[Garion]

Originally posted by: Ameesh

Originally posted by: Garion
You really want to know? $125,000 this year including salary and bonuses, more if you cound stock options. I'm a Senior Network Architect with eight years experience and a degree in Computer Science. I work for one of the largest banks in the US, focusing on Internet and Security. We're in Seattle, where the cost of living is pretty high.

- G

are you 8 years out of college?

Yes, I graduated in '94. Did Helpdesk work in school, however. I don't count that anymore, however (But believe me, I did when I was looking for my first job!).

- G

 

[Mister T]

First year out of college I fall into the $80,000 - $90,000 range.
Graduated in June 2001.
I work in NYC.

 

[Maetryx]

If I could be a doomsayer for a moment....
Those number on that chart about how many offers were made to each profession and how much the offer was.... It's way high. Screw that. There are thousands and thousands of graduates every year. If they responded to that survey (and really, it looks like only a handful did respond) it was because they had SCORED on a job offer.

There has got to be LOTS of college students and recent grads reading this with a sense of disbelief. You should. It took me 8 years out of college to get to 40k with a civil engineering degree in Alaska. And that was working in jobs related to my degree. I could have been all coy and simply mentioned my MUCH higher salary that I'm getting at my new job (that I got a month ago) and not mentioned that I'm 31, but jeez.

Everyone in college hears stories about all these wonderful 40k jobs waiting for them after they get that magic piece of paper. *Mostly* hogwash. It's just that the people that land those jobs right out of college speak the loudest. The vast majority don't walk into that kind of money right out of college. Most of us had to work our way in the job market into those jobs.

Now, on the plus side, a college degree will get you to these jobs, or rather, will get you to the interveiws to the job that *leads* to a high paying job. But it ain't over with that magic piece of paper. You just got started. And that's good. But don't be all depressed when no one rushes up to you and thrusts 40k and 401k into your pocket before you get your black robe unzipped.

 

[BigJohnKC]

I started out after graduating at 40K a year, but that's in Kansas City. If I was in CA or NYC I'm sure it'd be almost double that, but cost of living is so much lower here than there. Making more now, but that's another story....

 

[Rob9874]

Yeah, I don't think $40K right out of school is too far-fetched. Most of the people that I graduated with in '99 in the Supply Chain program got offers about $40K. I was offered $42K. The lowest pay grade for college grads at my company starts at $38K. We had one girl start with us recently who graduated with a Business degree from Indiana last year, and she accepted a position with our company (for around $40K), and it was the lowest offer she got! She had higher offers from Exxon and Ford. Her highest was $62K! For a business degree right out of school. You can go to salary.com to see salary averages for your position, and even by zip code. I think ignorance plays a key part here, and people have no idea what they're worth. That's why I started this thread. When my fiancee graduated college (before I met her, or else I would have set her straight), she was asked in her job interview what she was hoping to make, and she blurted out "low 20's". That was alot of money to her, never having worked a "real" job before. Later she found that her colleagues were making $35K and up. Now, after getting her Master's degree and with a better knowledge of salaries in her industry, she's making $35/hr as a Speech Therapist. Only one year out of Grad School.

 

[SweetBaboo]

18k a year...chemical engineering college grad...course, I'm a graduate student now and that's my graduate stipend...tuition is 25k, so technically, i'm being given 43k, i just don't get to choose where 25k of it goes...
my professors say I'm guaranteed to start off at at least 75k after I get my PhD in chemical engineering...
oh, i'm in rochester, NY...cost of living is low, so life is good...
even after i'm making six figures though, i'd still like to stay in WNY

 

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: Mister T
First year out of college I fall into the $80,000 - $90,000 range.
Graduated in June 2001.
I work in NYC.

So 80K in NYC = 40K any where else.

How much a month on rent and power??

 

[Maetryx]

Bah. One more doomsay from me. If you're expecting $40k+ out of college, you'd better be getting a hard science or engineering degree. My best friend has a bachelor's in biology and he's never got more than $30k and that was in a job totally unrelated to his degree.

God, you guys. Don't poison these poor college students with your exceptional stories. It just ain't right. Like I said, it took me about 7 years to get to $40k after I got out of college, and that was with a civil engineering degree.

Now, inflation being what it is, it might not take a NEW engineering graduate 7 years to get to $40k, but I wouldn't be surprised if it took several years even now.

 

[Rob9874]

I don't think we should scare them either. I performed a search on Salary.com for entry level Civil Engineer in Fairbanks, AK (I'm not sure where you live). And the bottom 25% makes over $49K. And that's for 0-2 years experience. Maybe their data are not 100% accurate, but I know many industries and universities consider it that standard for salary data. You can see the data here.

 

[StattlichPassat]

Not graduating for another year. =/

 

[notfred]

Originally posted by: Maetryx
Bah. One more doomsay from me. If you're expecting $40k+ out of college, you'd better be getting a hard science or engineering degree. My best friend has a bachelor's in biology and he's never got more than $30k and that was in a job totally unrelated to his degree.

God, you guys. Don't poison these poor college students with your exceptional stories. It just ain't right. Like I said, it took me about 7 years to get to $40k after I got out of college, and that was with a civil engineering degree.

Now, inflation being what it is, it might not take a NEW engineering graduate 7 years to get to $40k, but I wouldn't be surprised if it took several years even now.

I don't think you're taking into account the high number of people living in California, the NYC metro area, and other expensive places who visit this site. Very few of us live in Alaska.

I make about 25k a year, but I'm currently a college student, not a graduate.

 

[UDT89]

the govt pays me around 55k.

funny part is my base is 26k. the rest is OT..........

 

[Maetryx]

I'm not trying to scare anyone. I'm trying to show the other side of the coin. It turns out I *am* in Fairbanks, Alaska. Although I only represent a single data point myself, I *KNOW* that civil engineers with 0 experience don't get $49k and up in this town.

I got hired by an environmental engineering firm for $16/hr. = $33k/yr in 1998, 4 YEARS after I got out of college. I had been working for around $15/hr from 1994 to that point. I gradually worked my way up to $18.93/hr = $39k/yr THIS YEAR. As it turns out, I got a new job about a month ago and my new job pays $52k/yr. But that job had requirements that no recent college graduate could have met.

I promise you that my experience is normal. A handful of graduates will land jobs with Alyeska (the pipeline company) and maybe the Corps of Engineers. Those few may well get $40k a year. The rest of them will struggle to get on at the local private engineering firms where someone has to die to create an opening. And they'll probably get closer to $30k a year.

 

[huey1124]

i work as a cancer research scientist. Biology degree with +2 years work experience. i fall in the $50k-$60k range, but expect to climb the ladder fast.

 

[notfred]

Originally posted by: Maetryx
I promise you that my experience is normal. A handful of graduates will land jobs with Alyeska (the pipeline company) and maybe the Corps of Engineers. Those few may well get $40k a year. The rest of them will struggle to get on at the local private engineering firms where someone has to die to create an opening. And they'll probably get closer to $30k a year.

See, there's a million people within ten miles of me. And a proprtionally large number of companies. Sun and Intel both have plants near here. There are big banks, car companies, and well, a downtown full of 50 story buildings. An hour drive west there's the Silicon valley, and San Francsico. There's not only one large company offering jobs in the entire state.

 

[Maetryx]

You make a very good point, notfred. I probably have sacrificed some potential income by staying in Fairbanks. And I should mention a few other things that make Alaska unique, as far as money goes.

1) The Federal government pays it's employees up here a 25% COLA (cost of living adjustment)
2) There are not state or local income taxes up here
3) There is no state sales tax
4) Every man, woman and child, receives a $1500 (currently) check from the State of Alaska each October (i.e. $6000 for a family of 4).

So my income is not directly comparable to other locations. I probably pay far less taxes than someone in NYC or the Bay Area. But I also pay more for food, and possibly utilities. And I pay a &%#ing ton of money for shipping and almost none of the HOT DEALS apply to Alaskans :|.

 

[ivol]

42.3K a year. Graduated 2 years ago with a 2 year Graphic Design Degree from one of those schools you see in the newspaper (read crappy). I started at my current job at 20K a year and just worked my way up. I must say that I was VERY lucky to get the job that I did. Now my official title is "Web Developer". My company is one of the lucky dot coms that is growing.

Of course 42.3K a year is not a huge amount living in Orange County California. But the way I see it is that every day is another days experience that I could put on my resume. And when it comes down to it, experience is a huge factor when applying for a job.

 

[2cool4u]

Cool post MrBond. I myself am a chemistry major right now in my 3rd year. I'm not looking for Chemical engineering, i'm going straight for teh PhD in organic chemistry . So in another 8 years (or however long) when i get out of school i'll post it here

 

[tgillitzr]

I'm currently making 16/hr with unlimited overtime available. I'm an Applications Systems Analyst (My job duties include customer service, "programing" in a proprietary language, hardware testing, and some software/hardware development). I'm in the Kansas City area.

After all is said and done, I will make almost 50K this year, and take home about 34K.

I graduated from Devry in November of '01 with an Associates degree. I started my job in at the end of January. I am 20 years old.

I am working on getting my debt in order before I go back to school for the real deal.

 

[Acts837]

Masters degree + 17 years USMC & 5 kids = not enough income

 

[Placer14]

Hey guys, don't worry about the money. I'm offically only a freshman in college and on hiatus and working a fulltime time, i'm pulling in a decent 18k. Paying back major debt and living at home for the time being, i'm getting by alright. I know things are going to get better. and this is with just high school experience....chin up and shoot high.

<--- is going to be a motivational speak when i grow up.