Starting Salaries and Demand for Computer Science Graduates

The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) released a pair of surveys that show good salaries and a high demand for graduates with a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science.  The NACE Job Outlook 2011 survey polled employers about their hiring plans for the class of 2011.  The NACE Fall 2010 Salary Survey collected salary offers for graduates from the class of 2010.


The NACE Job Outlook 2011 survey found that graduates with degree in computer science were fourth most sought after group.  Approximately 53 percent of the employers planned to hire Computer Science graduates.  The top three degrees were accounting (plans for hire by 62% of respondents), finance (57 %), and electrical engineering (53.5 %).


The NACE Fall 2010 Salary Survey found that the average starting salary for students with degrees in Computer Science was higher than all but three other disciplines. Computer Science graduates received an average starting salary of $60,473. The sorted list of salaries for the top 10 disciplines is listed in the table below.

Discipline	Average Salary
Petroleum Engineering	$77,278
Chemical Engineering	$64,889
Mining & Mineral Engineering (incl. Geological)	$63,207
Computer Science	$60,473
Electrical/Electronics & Communications Engineering	$59,512
Aerospace/Aeronautical/Astronautical Engineering	$58,208
Mechanical Engineering	$58,110
Industrial/Manufacturing Engineering	$57,396
Systems Engineering	$56,953
Bioengineering & Biomedical Engineering	$53,416

Details for the NACE surveys are available from http://www.naceweb.org/.


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Jeremy Blum, D.Sc.
Assistant Professor of Computer Science
Penn State Harrisburg
777 W. Harrisburg Pike
Middletown, PA 17057
Email: jjb24@psu.edu
Phone: (717) 948-6686