What Is The Average Starting Pay For College Graduates

Future Graduates: Bachelor’s Vs. Master’s Starting Salaries

Author: Emily Wahl

As spring approaches many college seniors are anticipating graduation but questioning their future endeavors.  There are many options one could decide after graduating, whether they want to take time off to travel, jump right into the workforce or enroll in graduate school to earn master’s degrees.  Many factors that would affect their decision process would be the current job market in their field of expertise, starting salaries with a bachelor’s degree and being able to predict the starting pay with a master’s degree based on the percentage of average starting salary each year.

            First with today’s economy the job market can be perfect for some but terrible for others.  If you graduate with a degree in accounting or business the field is steadily growing and firms are continuously hiring entry-levels and trying to expand their market share.  On the other side, to find a job in education, communications or advertising for example, it is very hard to find any company that is hiring since many are trying to cut costs.

            Next you need to compare starting salaries between Bachelors and Masters Degrees.  I first found national average starting salaries of various occupations at Bachelor’s degree level. Then found current national average starting salaries of employees with Masters Degrees, and increased it by 4% for two years to have a realistic view if you went into the workforce now compared to going back to school and what the opportunity would be when you graduated.  A few examples I found are; a degree in chemistry has a starting salary with $44,136 and a master’s starting salary in two years is predicted at $59,167, a bachelor’s degree in communications starts around $35,196 while a master’s is predicted to be $59,167, psychology starts around $30,877 while a master’s starts around $39,584, education starts around $39,200 with a masters predicted to start around $53,431 and lastly is a bachelor’s degree in accounting has average starting salaries of $44,630 and a master’s degree predicted to start at $53,233 in two years.

The last factor you need to take into account is the tuition costs for graduate schools.  The average tuition increased in the past year from $28,404 to $29,940 and continuing to increase each year.  If higher education is in the future, with the high tuition costs and todays market it is very hard for students to be able to finance these costs if they need to use student or private loans. 

In my opinion, since I recently faced this critical situation I would suggest that if you can receive a job offer now, take it!  You never know what the job market will be like in two years, maybe even worse.  On the other hand if you have a tough time entering into the job market, I would recommend continuing your education, especially if it was already a future goal.  It is always harder to start working and then go back to school.  In today’s job market many are being laid off from their long time jobs while many of us graduates are trying to break into the workforce for the very first time. In the end, the decision is left up to the future graduate, which choice fits their needs and what work load they will be able to handle.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/college-and-university-articles/future-graduates-bachelors-vs-masters-starting-salaries-654828.html

About the Author