Top-tier earnings and healthy debt — the labor market just isn't growing as fast as the paycheck implies

Electrical engineering sits at the top of the undergraduate ROI conversation, and the data packet explains why. A bachelor's graduate earns $77,478 in year 1 per College Scorecard, rising to $101,141 by year four and a $126,121 Census PSEO median at year 10 — with the 75th percentile clearing $158,843. The $19,979 institution-level median debt produces a debt-to-income ratio of 0.258 at the bachelor's level, well inside the 0.40 healthy threshold. The three-year loan default rate across the 464 schools producing electrical engineering credentials is 0.002% — effectively zero.

The labor-market backdrop is good rather than great. BLS projects weighted employment growth of +5.3% across EE-linked occupations for 2024–2034 — ahead of the +4.0% all-occupations baseline, but well below the core electrical engineers role itself, which grows +7.2% with 11,700 annual openings at a $111,910 median wage. The weighted average is dragged down by the large 'engineers, all other' residual category (SOC 17-2199, 158,800 employed, +2.1% growth). Adjacent destinations are strong: computer hardware engineers (+7.3%, $155,020), electronics engineers (+6.2%, $127,590), aerospace engineers (+6.1%, $134,830), and postsecondary engineering teachers (+8.1%, $106,120) all sit above baseline.

The rest of this page walks through earnings by credential, debt load, and where electrical engineering graduates actually work — so a student deciding between EE and, say, computer science or mechanical engineering can see what the bachelor's alone is worth.

Electrical engineering produces credentials at meaningful scale — 26,611 total completions in 2024 — and the distribution is heavily bachelor's-weighted but with a notably deeper graduate tail than mechanical engineering. Bachelor's degrees account for 14,824 completions (55.7%), master's at 8,763 (32.9%), doctoral at 2,102 (7.9%), and associate's at just 273. Certificates across all types add another 649 combined. The 33% master's share is the structural signal that this field has more graduate-track specialization than most — semiconductors, RF/communications, power electronics, and controls all pull students into graduate study at higher rates than mechanical engineering's 17% master's share.

The earnings gap between the bachelor's and master's is substantial and immediate. Bachelor's graduates start at $77,478 in year 1 and reach $101,141 by year four. Master's graduates start at $107,922 — a $30,444 premium at year one — and reach $137,263 by year four. That's a larger premium than mechanical engineering's $23,360 master's delta, reflecting the hardware-specialization tracks that genuinely reward graduate work. The master's still isn't required for mainstream industry work: the core electrical engineers occupation (SOC 17-2071) and engineering managers role (SOC 11-9041) both list a bachelor's as the typical education requirement per BLS. The master's earns its keep for students targeting semiconductor design, RF/communications, power systems, or controls. The doctoral tier delivers the highest year-4 earnings in the field at $222,994 per Scorecard — though the credential is typically funded, meaning the tuition math works even more cleanly at that level.

One demographic note that requires stating plainly: electrical engineering is 81.7% men in 2024, with the gender ratio actually widening toward the associate's tier (just 11.4% women) and narrowing somewhat at the master's (22.5% women). This is the second-deepest gender concentration in this worth-it series after mechanical engineering, and it has not meaningfully shifted in the decade. It doesn't change the labor-market fundamentals, but it's useful context: women entering this field are joining a heavily male-dominated classroom and workplace. The completion trend is fractionally down — 27,641 graduates in 2023 to 26,611 in 2024 — a rounding error rather than a trend. Field-level debt data is missing across every tier, so all ratios here lean on the $19,979 institution-level fallback.

The destination map for electrical engineering graduates is unusually broad, spanning core EE roles, hardware design, communications, aerospace, and management. The core occupation is pulling its weight. Electrical engineers (SOC 17-2071, 192,000 employed) project +7.2% growth through 2034 per BLS — nearly double the +4.0% all-occupations baseline — with a $111,910 median wage and 11,700 annual openings. That alone is a clean entry point: bachelor's required, above-baseline growth, wages well above the national median, and a deep national labor market.

The destinations above the core role extend the story. Architectural and engineering managers (SOC 11-9041, 212,500 employed) top the wage chart at $167,740 median with +3.8% growth — a mid-career promotion path, not an entry point. Computer hardware engineers (SOC 17-2061, 76,800 employed) pay $155,020 median with the field's fastest core-role growth at +7.3% — a destination that rewards EE graduates with digital-logic and computer-architecture coursework. Electronics engineers, except computer (SOC 17-2072, 95,900 employed) pay $127,590 median with +6.2% growth. Aerospace engineers (SOC 17-2011, 71,600 employed) pay $134,830 median with +6.1% growth — a common destination via avionics, guidance, or embedded-systems specializations. Engineering teachers, postsecondary (SOC 25-1032) grow fastest at +8.1% with a $106,120 median, though the doctoral requirement makes this a niche off-ramp.

The drag on the weighted picture comes from one specific occupation. Engineers, all other (SOC 17-2199, 158,800 employed, $117,750 median) project just +2.1% growth through 2034 — half the all-occupations baseline. This is a residual BLS category for engineering roles not captured in the named SOCs, and it's a large one — the second-biggest destination on the map after management. The honest takeaway: electrical engineering is a strong field whose weighted average is depressed by a large generalist residual. Students planning careers in semiconductors, hardware design, communications, aerospace, or power face outlooks well above the field average; students drifting into unclassified engineering roles face the inverse. Together, these seven occupations employ roughly 858,000 people and produce the majority of the field's ~55,000 annual openings.