Idhaya – Engineering & Technology Blog, Industrial & Mechanical Engineering Information

Engineering-related degrees are the top earning college degrees, according to a survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers. The data was collected by surveying 200 college career centers across the country.

Engineers hold some of the most important jobs in helping the society we live in. “They are in the background designing and building everything from our cell phones, to the buildings we live and work in, to the medical equipment used to improve our lives,” said UNT assistant professor Dr. Althea Arnold.

The top 15 highest earning college degrees:

Petroleum Engineering – $ 83,121 Chemical Engineering – $64,902 Mining Engineering – $64,404 Computer Engineering – $61,738 Computer Science – $61,407 Electrical Engineering – $60,125 Mechanical Engineering – $58,766 Industrial Engineering – $58,358 Systems Engineering – $57,438 Engineering Technology – $56,447 Actuarial Science – $ 56,320 Aeronautical Engineering – $56,311 Agricultural Engineering – $54,352 Biomedical Engineering – $54,158 Construction Management – $53,199

On the list of 15, engineering-related diplomas took every spot except for one, which belonged to actuarial science majors. Actuarial science is the practice of applying mathematical methods to assess risk in financial industries.

“A degree in engineering is certainly an excellent training for innovation and discovery, which contribute significantly to the welfare of mankind,” said Dr. Nourredine Boubekri, Chairman of the Engineering Technology Department at UNT.

The number one degree, petroleum engineering, has an average starting salary of $83, 121. According to CNN, the high salary is an outcome of petroleum’s growing scarcity.

Fewer students are graduating with math-based majors and more are graduating with liberal-arts majors, according to CNN. Out of the 1,524,000 bachelor’s degrees awarded in 2007 only 450 were in petroleum engineering and 4,492 in chemical engineering, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. The low number in math-based majors could be a reason why graduates in the field are paid more than others. There are a larger amount of graduates in other fields, making finding employees not very hard.

“I chose to go with liberal arts because I’m not very strong in math, I could never do what engineers do with numbers and calculations,” said UNT junior Kathleen Brown.

Not every student graduating in engineering enters the job market with a huge salary. Engineering has also been hit by the economic and job crises as well, but still students prove to do better with a math/technology based degree in the tough job market.

“I’ve always wanted to study engineering because of my love for math but especially because I love to take things apart and discover what’s going on and how to improve it.” said Mark Logan who hopes to attend UNT in the spring.

The College of Engineering at UNT is made of 3 departments: the departments of computer science and engineering, engineering technology, and materials science and engineering. These departments offer student research and study, giving students the chance of working towards bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degrees.

“Engineers are the unsung heroes in our advanced technological society,” said Arnold. “Without engineers, no part of our modern society would exist today.”

College computer engineering programs exposes the students to a variety of computer related issues covering both the hardware and software.  Computer engineering college students can either specialize in software engineering or hardware engineering. Software engineering will mainly focus on the development, design, analysis, implementation and maintenance of the computer software. Any computer engineering college dealing with software engineering will teach students how to program in various computer languages such as Java, C++ and Visual Basics.

A computer engineering college offering hardware engineering will mostly be dealing with the physical parts of the computer and how they work. The hardware includes the monitor, CPU, keyboard, mouse and other accessories such as scanners, printers and modems. A good computer engineering school will normally offer both hardware and software engineering options for the learners to choose but those that are specific to either one of the two are good too because they tend to have adequate specific teaching materials ad equipment.

Most specific computer engineering programs will tend to incorporate the other because they are integrated in way. It is very hard to isolate the software from the hardware and vice versa hence programs usually have both only that focus is given to one area. A computer engineering school will normally engage its students in research and projects that are aimed at helping them understand the basics of computer engineering through practical work.

Computer engineering college programs are closely related to mathematics and electrical engineering programs as well as other related sciences. A computer engineering school that wants to be up to date in the skills it imparts in its students will normally improve and up date the programs from time to time to reflect changing technological needs of the IT markets. A Computer engineering program that seeks to balance all computer related issues will normally equip students with computer networking skills, communication systems skills, electronics skills and programming. With these skills, it becomes easier to find jobs as a software programmer, analyst or network developer. As companies adapt to new technologies, these kinds of professionals are highly sought-after in whatever specialization.