Median Starting Salaries (by Institution): Aerospace Engineering
Salary (by major) data was collected from the U.S. Department of Education’s (USDOE) College Scorecard platform and indicates the median salary of an institution’s graduates five years after receiving their bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering, along with the number of graduates per institution for which the USDOE has salary data. Since the USDOE focuses only on early-career salaries, we limit the salary tables on our Dataverse to “pre-professional” majors where students are more likely to pursue employment immediately after graduation (e.g., as opposed to attending graduate school) and within their undergraduate field of study.
*Note that the USDOE is not able to disclose salary data by major for all institutions offering a major in this area. For example, if a group of individuals within a certain institution is too small, the USDOE must suppress salary data in order to prevent identification of the group’s individuals.
Table Updated March 2026
| Institution | # Graduates | Median Starting Salary | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 166683 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 44 | $138,934 | MIT |
| 123961 | University of Southern California | 52 | $113,915 | USC |
| 170976 | University of Michigan-Ann Arbor | 126 | $113,025 | UMich |
| 110422 | California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo | 93 | $112,671 | |
| 145637 | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | 105 | $109,503 | UIUC |
| 110680 | University of California-San Diego | 127 | $107,359 | UCSD; UC San Diego |
| 163286 | University of Maryland-College Park | 156 | $106,431 | UMD |
| 104179 | University of Arizona | 18 | $103,537 | |
| 126614 | University of Colorado Boulder | 194 | $103,431 | CU Boulder |
| 110653 | University of California-Irvine | 85 | $102,765 | UCI; UC Irvine |
| 236948 | University of Washington-Seattle Campus | 73 | $102,468 | UW |
| 139755 | Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus | 201 | $101,967 | Georgia Tech |
| 122755 | San Jose State University | 55 | $101,217 | SJSU |
| 172699 | Western Michigan University | 20 | $100,965 | |
| 228778 | The University of Texas at Austin | 122 | $100,587 | UT; UT Austin |
| 233921 | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University | 173 | $100,423 | Virginia Tech; Va Tech |
| 134130 | University of Florida | 126 | $100,208 | UF |
| 133881 | Florida Institute of Technology | 77 | $99,429 | FIT |
| 214777 | Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus | 127 | $99,365 | PSU; Penn State |
| 110583 | California State University-Long Beach | 63 | $99,098 | |
| 196413 | Syracuse University | 31 | $98,978 | |
| 152080 | University of Notre Dame | 23 | $98,886 | UND |
| 110644 | University of California-Davis | 86 | $98,457 | UC Davis |
| 168421 | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | 59 | $98,303 | WPI |
| 194824 | Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute | 114 | $98,049 | RPI |
| 243780 | Purdue University-Main Campus | 253 | $97,947 | |
| 104586 | Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Prescott | 127 | $97,915 | |
| 133553 | Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Daytona Beach | 199 | $97,915 | |
| 104151 | Arizona State University Campus Immersion | 88 | $97,599 | ASU |
| 110662 | University of California-Los Angeles | 58 | $97,069 | UCLA |
| 110529 | California State Polytechnic University-Pomona | 101 | $97,066 | |
| 237950 | West Virginia University Institute of Technology | 0 | $96,827 | |
| 238032 | West Virginia University | 82 | $96,827 | WVU |
| 228723 | Texas A & M University-College Station | 169 | $96,505 | |
| 100858 | Auburn University | 87 | $95,997 | |
| 190044 | Clarkson University | 30 | $95,489 | |
| 188030 | New Mexico State University-Main Campus | 51 | $95,469 | NMSU |
| 178411 | Missouri University of Science and Technology | 63 | $95,014 | MUST |
| 199193 | North Carolina State University at Raleigh | 87 | $94,192 | NC State; NCSU |
| 176080 | Mississippi State University | 66 | $94,025 | MSU |
| 122409 | San Diego State University | 80 | $93,649 | SDSU |
| 234076 | University of Virginia-Main Campus | 50 | $93,485 | UVA |
| 153603 | Iowa State University | 160 | $92,551 | ISU |
| 179159 | Saint Louis University | 36 | $92,038 | SLU |
| 201645 | Case Western Reserve University | 29 | $90,949 | CWRU |
| 228769 | The University of Texas at Arlington | 54 | $88,986 | UT |
| 204796 | Ohio State University-Main Campus | 76 | $88,477 | OSU |
| 201885 | University of Cincinnati-Main Campus | 73 | $86,633 | Cincy |
| 221759 | The University of Tennessee-Knoxville | 48 | $85,604 | UTK |
| 132903 | University of Central Florida | 206 | $84,789 | UCF |
| 196088 | University at Buffalo | 113 | $83,498 | |
| 156125 | Wichita State University | 72 | $82,517 | |
| 174066 | University of Minnesota-Twin Cities | 76 | $81,624 | UMN |
| 145725 | Illinois Institute of Technology | 31 | $75,993 | IIT |
| 135726 | University of Miami | 13 | N/A (suppressed) | UM; UMiami |
| 207500 | University of Oklahoma-Norman Campus | 34 | N/A (suppressed) | |
| 155317 | University of Kansas | 59 | N/A (suppressed) | KU |
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