Bachelor’s degree · earnings 4 years after completing
Highest-Paying Colleges for Aerospace Engineering (Bachelor's)
Graduates who complete a bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering earn a median of $98,207 four years after finishing, and the middle half earn between $81,638 and $115,917. We rank the 52 U.S. colleges whose Aerospace Engineering programs have at least 25 graduates in the Scorecard earnings sample, 3,648 graduates in all. That puts Aerospace Engineering at #6 of 131 bachelor's degree fields we rank, among the best-paid fields.
University of Southern California, in California, leads at $125,514, 29% above the median ranked school ($96,994). Most schools are tightly bunched: the middle half of ranked schools earn between $92,354 and $102,823, and the lowest earns $83,057, so outside the leaders the choice of school moves earnings less than the choice of major. 21 of the 52 ranked schools (40%) match or beat the national median.
Public universities dominate the top 20: 15 public, 5 private nonprofit and 0 for-profit. Across all ranked schools, 81% are public. California places 8 schools in the top 20, ahead of Massachusetts (2).
The top 20 schools cost about the same as the rest of the list: a median net price of $16,015 a year, against $17,321 across all 52 ranked schools. Their graduates who borrowed carry a median of $22,063 in federal loans, about 21% of one year of earnings. Measured against a typical high-school graduate in the same state, the median top-20 school recovers its net cost in about 1.0 years.
Showing the top 50 of 52 ranked schools. Select a column heading to re-sort the table. † = fewer than 40 graduates in the earnings sample.
| 1 | University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $125,514 | 34 † | $20,030 | $32,740 | 1.5 |
| 2 | University of Colorado Boulder Boulder, CO Public · 4-year | $116,350 | 57 | $24,500 | $25,346 | 1.3 |
| 3 | University of California-Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA Public · 4-year | $115,706 | 29 † | $19,000 | $12,548 | 0.6 |
| 4 | University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI Public · 4-year | $115,075 | 113 | $21,125 | $13,138 | 0.7 |
| 5 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $114,620 | 30 † | $17,724 | $20,111 | 1.1 |
| 6 | University of Washington-Seattle Campus Seattle, WA Public · 4-year | $111,349 | 64 | $12,410 | $14,091 | 0.8 |
| 7 | California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo San Luis Obispo, CA Public · 4-year | $107,498 | 94 | $22,500 | $16,665 | 0.9 |
| 8 | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Blacksburg, VA Public · 4-year | $106,633 | 89 | $25,833 | $24,953 | 1.4 |
| 9 | California State Polytechnic University-Pomona Pomona, CA Public · 4-year | $106,171 | 115 | $25,750 | $11,531 | 0.7 |
| 10 | Case Western Reserve University Cleveland, OH Private nonprofit · 4-year | $106,134 | 28 † | $26,061 | $41,190 | 2.4 |
| 11 | Worcester Polytechnic Institute Worcester, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $105,171 | 57 | $27,000 | $43,071 | 2.7 |
| 12 | The University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX Public · 4-year | $104,422 | 95 | $22,125 | $19,857 | 1.1 |
| 13 | University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, IN Private nonprofit · 4-year | $103,022 | 29 † | $19,000 | $26,780 | 1.6 |
| 14 | Auburn University Auburn, AL Public · 4-year | $102,756 | 37 † | $20,417 | $24,323 | 1.4 |
| 15 | Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus Atlanta, GA Public · 4-year | $102,415 | 135 | $22,000 | $12,116 | 0.7 |
| 16 | California State University-Long Beach Long Beach, CA Public · 4-year | $101,797 | 53 | $25,775 | $10,440 | 0.6 |
| 17 | University of California-Irvine Irvine, CA Public · 4-year | $100,537 | 64 | $18,400 | $14,251 | 0.9 |
| 18 | University of California-San Diego La Jolla, CA Public · 4-year | $100,173 | 73 | $20,008 | $12,470 | 0.8 |
| 19 | San Diego State University San Diego, CA Public · 4-year | $100,139 | 75 | $23,417 | $15,364 | 1.0 |
| 20 | The University of Texas at Arlington Arlington, TX Public · 4-year | $99,239 | 53 | $25,130 | $13,951 | 0.9 |
| 21 | Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus University Park, PA Public · 4-year | $99,159 | 132 | $26,969 | $32,875 | 2.1 |
| 22 | University of Maryland-College Park College Park, MD Public · 4-year | $98,044 | 58 | $21,083 | $15,678 | 1.0 |
| 23 | Purdue University-Main Campus West Lafayette, IN Public · 4-year | $97,332 | 125 | $21,500 | $14,600 | 1.0 |
| 24 | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL Public · 4-year | $97,276 | 80 | $23,888 | $14,355 | 0.9 |
| 25 | Texas A&M University-College Station College Station, TX Public · 4-year | $97,227 | 114 | $21,999 | $21,315 | 1.4 |
| 26 | Florida Institute of Technology Melbourne, FL Private nonprofit · 4-year | $97,015 | 57 | $24,976 | $35,639 | 2.3 |
| 27 | University of Central Florida Orlando, FL Public · 4-year | $96,972 | 64 | $24,750 | $10,411 | 0.7 |
| 28 | Arizona State University Campus Immersion Tempe, AZ Public · 4-year | $96,946 | 96 | $25,390 | $14,967 | 1.0 |
| 29 | Missouri University of Science and Technology Rolla, MO Public · 4-year | $96,090 | 73 | $22,000 | $16,298 | 1.1 |
| 30 | Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Daytona Beach Daytona Beach, FL Private nonprofit · 4-year | $95,552 | 286 | $26,312 | $41,272 | 2.7 |
| 31 | West Virginia University Morgantown, WV Public · 4-year | $94,750 | 84 | $27,242 | $15,634 | 1.0 |
| 32 | Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Troy, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $94,750 | 81 | $24,861 | $36,228 | 2.5 |
| 33 | University of Florida Gainesville, FL Public · 4-year | $94,375 | 76 | $17,416 | $6,541 | 0.4 |
| 34 | Western Michigan University Kalamazoo, MI Public · 4-year | $94,177 | 52 | $27,000 | $15,273 | 1.0 |
| 35 | Iowa State University Ames, IA Public · 4-year | $94,089 | 146 | $26,017 | $18,589 | 1.3 |
| 36 | University of California-Davis Davis, CA Public · 4-year | $93,414 | 36 † | $18,748 | $14,741 | 1.0 |
| 37 | Ohio State University-Main Campus Columbus, OH Public · 4-year | $92,999 | 77 | $25,360 | $17,339 | 1.2 |
| 38 | University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Minneapolis, MN Public · 4-year | $92,422 | 85 | $23,083 | $16,778 | 1.2 |
| 39 | University at Buffalo Buffalo, NY Public · 4-year | $92,360 | 67 | $23,000 | $20,995 | 1.5 |
| 40 | University of Kansas Lawrence, KS Public · 4-year | $92,335 | 28 † | $25,000 | $18,059 | 1.3 |
| 41 | The University of Alabama Tuscaloosa, AL Public · 4-year | $91,999 | 42 | $26,787 | $22,420 | 1.5 |
| 42 | Oklahoma State University-Main Campus Stillwater, OK Public · 4-year | $91,249 | 68 | $19,500 | $17,447 | 1.2 |
| 43 | Clarkson University Potsdam, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $91,066 | 50 | $27,000 | $30,305 | 2.2 |
| 44 | Syracuse University Syracuse, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $90,470 | 41 | $27,000 | $38,793 | 2.8 |
| 45 | North Carolina State University at Raleigh Raleigh, NC Public · 4-year | $89,932 | 52 | $20,750 | $17,303 | 1.2 |
| 46 | University of Oklahoma-Norman Campus Norman, OK Public · 4-year | $89,714 | 27 † | $23,500 | $15,300 | 1.1 |
| 47 | The University of Tennessee-Knoxville Knoxville, TN Public · 4-year | $89,015 | 32 † | $25,000 | $18,976 | 1.4 |
| 48 | University of Cincinnati-Main Campus Cincinnati, OH Public · 4-year | $88,511 | 55 | $20,750 | $25,648 | 2.0 |
| 49 | Mississippi State University Mississippi State, MS Public · 4-year | $88,444 | 49 | $17,500 | $17,595 | 1.2 |
| 50 | University of Arizona Tucson, AZ Public · 4-year | $86,529 | 30 † | $23,000 | $16,674 | 1.3 |
How this ranking is built
A school appears here only if it meets every condition below.
- Which programs count
- Main campuses only, one entry per institution. Scorecard reports program outcomes for the whole six-digit federal ID (OPEID6), so branch campuses share their parent’s numbers and are not listed twice.
- Only bachelor's degree programs in Aerospace Engineering (CIP 1402, the four-digit code Scorecard uses to group related programs).
- At least 25 graduates in the earnings sample. Smaller samples are left out because their medians swing too much and the counts carry a little privacy noise.
- A major gets a page only when at least 20 schools qualify. This one has 52.
- Ranked by median earnings 4 years after completing, highest first. Ties go to the larger sample, then to the school name.
- Schools missing earnings or a sample size are left out rather than estimated.
- What the numbers mean
- Earnings: median annual earnings of graduates four years after completing. The cohort completed in academic years 2017-18 and 2018-19 and was measured in calendar years 2022 and 2023, in 2024 dollars.
- Who is counted: graduates who received federal student aid (Title IV grants or loans), and only those who were working and not enrolled in more school that year. Graduates without federal aid, those who went on to further study and those with no earnings are not in the median.
- Scorecard adds privacy noise to counts and medians and hides values it cannot protect, so a gap of a few percent between two schools is not meaningful.
- Graduates: the number of graduates in that earnings sample. A † marks fewer than 40, where the figure is less precise.
- Debt: median federal loan debt (Stafford and Grad PLUS loans disbursed at that school) of graduates who borrowed, from the 2018-19 and 2019-20 completers. Parent PLUS and private loans are not included.
- Net price: average yearly cost after grants and scholarships for the whole institution, not this major, academic year 2023-24.
- Payback: 4 years of net price divided by how much these earnings exceed a high-school graduate’s in the school’s state. Shown only when that gap is at least $2,000, the same formula as the rest of the site.
- Source: U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard field-of-study data, June 2026 release.
Top states for Aerospace Engineering earnings
Median of the school medians for states with at least 3 ranked schools. The best school in each state is shown.
| State | Median earnings | Ranked schools | Top school |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | $101,797 | 9 | University of Southern California |
| Texas | $99,239 | 3 | The University of Texas at Austin |
| Florida | $96,262 | 4 | Florida Institute of Technology |
| Ohio | $92,999 | 3 | Case Western Reserve University |
| New York | $91,713 | 4 | Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute |
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