Higher Starting Salaries Seen by Class of 2011

The college Class of 2011 outpaced the preceding class in average starting salary. Overall, 2011 graduates at the bachelor’s degree level began their first post-graduation job with an average salary of $41,701—up 2.3 percent over the average salary for Class of 2010 graduates, according to NACE’s Winter 2012 Salary Survey report.

In fact, the report shows that average starting salaries grew across the board, albeit modestly in most cases. “Graduates in the engineering and computer science disciplines fared best in terms of overall average starting salary, and computer science graduates saw the largest overall increase,” says Marilyn Mackes, NACE executive director. (See Figure 1.)

As a group, the average starting salary for engineering graduates is $61,872—up 1.5 percent over the 2010 average ($60,971). For students earning degrees in the computer science majors, the average starting salary now stands at $60,594, a 4.1 percent increase over the $58,229 posted in 2010.