According to the salary survey conducted by the National Association of College and Employers, the average salary offer to a 2010 college graduate with a bachelor’s degree in the US is $47,673.  This represents a 1.7% decrease from last year’s average, and is a reflection of the current recessionary environment and high unemployment rate.

Salaries for recent college graduates vary significantly depending on their field of study.  Graduates with technical degrees such as Computer Science and Engineering command the highest starting salaries, while liberal arts degree holders are generally offered much lower salaries.  Business undergrads are somewhere in between.  Here are some specific numbers from the survey, to give you some comparisons:

The Highest Starting Salaries by Undergraduate Degrees

Chemical Engineering     $66,437

Computer Science           $60,426

Electrical Engineering     $59,326

Mechanical Engineering $58,881

Civil Engineering               $52,443

 

The Middle of the Road

Marketing                           $42,710

Bus. Administration        $42,094

 

The Low End

Liberal Arts                         $33,540

 

Given the escalating cost of a college education and the decrease in starting salaries for many college graduates, the debate on whether it is worth getting a college degree is gaining a whole new impetus.  For students pursuing a liberal arts degree, which can easily cost six figures, it is becoming ever more difficult to understand the return on this investment when the starting salaries are not much higher than what one would expect in a position that does not require a college degree.  But where a college degree eventually pays off is in the later years, after you have your foot in the door and your career takes off to a whole new level of earnings potential.

Despite of the potential challenges with the initial financial justification of a college degree, more and more people believe that a college degree is a critical component of a person’s success, as discussed in detail in the article Is a College Degree Critical to Success?

As anyone who has played the “Game of Life” can attest, deciding whether to enter the workforce straight out of high school or to dedicate significant financial resources and at least four years of one’s life to pursue a college degree is never an easy decision.  This is especially difficult for those that are less privileged and do not have the financial means to make such a steep investment so early in life.   

However, research has shown that despite of the high initial investment and, in some cases, low starting salaries, a college degree is still a good investment with very positive returns, due to the great future earnings potential that it provides.  If you can pull together the resources to finance a college education, it is still one of the best investments that you can make.