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Technical Disciplines Command Highest Salaries

New college graduates with degrees in the engineering and computer science fields are boasting the highest average starting salaries, according to a new report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). In fact, chemical engineering graduates are pulling the highest average starting salary offer of $63,616 followed by computer engineering graduates of $59,962, a 14.7% increase from Spring 2007, reveals the Spring 2008 issue of NACE’s Salary Survey. “There is competition among employers for many graduates in the technical disciplines, and the high salary offers we’re seeing reflect that’” states NACE executive director, Marilyn Mackes. Furthermore, many disciplines have seen their starting salaries offers rise by 10% or more over the past year. Indeed, the average offer to construction science/management saw a 13.4% increase from $46,506 to $52,745; aerospace engineering saw an 11.3% increase from $52,131 to $57,999; and agricultural business and management saw an 11.2% increase from $38,055 to $42,299. Conversely, many of the business disciplines seem to be feeling the effects of changes in the economy and have seen little movement in their average starting salary offers. In fact, the current average salary offer to accounting majors, $47,429, is literally only a few dollars higher than the average these grads posted in Spring 2007 of $47,421. Business administration and management graduates didn’t fare much better – their average offer increased a mere 0.3% from $44,048 to $44,195.