What Civil Engineering Graduates Earn
How much do Civil Engineering bachelor's graduates earn?
Graduates of bachelor's programs in Civil Engineering earn a median of $72,540 one year after graduation and $90,385 five years out, across the 237 programs reporting to College Scorecard. The median debt at graduation is $21,500.
The after side of the Civil Engineering decision: a $72,540 start, $90,385 by year five, and $21,500 of median debt, measured by the federal government rather than surveyed by marketers.
Updated November 5, 2026
Median earnings at 1, 4, and 5 years (College Scorecard)
The three rows below are the whole earnings story Scorecard can tell about Civil Engineering: $72,540, then $85,133, then $90,385. Each median is graduate-weighted, built from 237 programs at year one and 233 at year five, and the unweighted program median sits alongside so a reader can see how much the weighting itself is doing.
| Horizon | Median earnings (graduate-weighted) | Median program (unweighted) | Graduates counted | Share earning above the high-school threshold |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 year after graduation | $72,540 | $72,633 | 17,467 | 85.9% |
| 4 years after graduation | $85,133 | $85,076 | 17,828 | n/p |
| 5 years after graduation | $90,385 | $89,879 | 17,173 | 89.6% |
From $72,540 in the first year to $90,385 in the fifth, earnings grow 25% ($17,845). For scale, the median bachelor's field in the Scorecard file grows from $45,010 to $65,763 over the same span, so this field's early-career slope is gentler than typical.
Scorecard separates the first-year figure by Pell history for this field: $72,490 for graduates who received Pell, $72,984 for those who did not. The $494 difference tracks institutional mix and starting networks far more than it tracks the credential itself, and it is printed here because a Pell student comparing programs deserves the unblended number.
Inside its own CIP family, Civil Engineering ranks 16 of 17 published bachelor's fields by five-year earnings; the family median at that horizon is $97,669. Its closest sibling is Agricultural Engineering at $91,160, above this field's $90,385. Family comparisons strip out the broad field effect and leave the specific program choice exposed.
Ranked across all 182 published fields, Civil Engineering stands number 34 by five-year earnings and number 22 by first-year earnings, and number 111 from the lowest median debt. Those three ranks together are the field's fingerprint: high earn rank with a low debt rank is the combination students are actually shopping for, and this field's spread between them is 77 places.
The debt side of the same degree
What does the median Civil Engineering graduate owe? $21,500, the graduate-weighted median over 220 programs with published debt figures. The ratio that matters is debt to first-year earnings: 30%, or 3.6 months of gross pay at the $72,540 median. At the 2026-27 undergraduate loan rate of 6.52%, the standard decade of repayment is $244 a month with $7,822 of interest on top. Model a different balance in the student loan payoff calculator before you borrow it, and sanity-check the degree in the college major ROI calculator.
Where graduates of this field earn the most
One field, many markets: the five-year median for Civil Engineering is $90,385 nationally, yet the strongest programs below run far ahead of it. The ranking keeps a 30-graduate floor under every entry, and University of California-Berkeley heads the list at $115,685.
| Institution | Median earnings, 5 years | Median earnings, 1 year | Median debt | Graduates counted (5yr) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of California-Berkeley | $115,685 | $84,461 | $11,634 | 71 |
| University of Southern California | $112,881 | $81,387 | $18,817 | 42 |
| Stevens Institute of Technology | $110,095 | $78,905 | $27,000 | 67 |
| San Jose State University | $109,028 | n/p | $14,308 | 59 |
| California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo | $106,910 | $79,454 | $16,667 | 146 |
Treat the top of this table as a research list, not a ranking to enroll by: medians reflect local labor markets and student mix as much as teaching. The honest comparison pairs each program's earnings here with its net price from the net price estimator and its four-year total from the degree cost calculator.
Two more facts about the shape of this field: the five highest-paying programs in the table account for only 2.2% of the 17,173 graduates counted at five years, so the top of the table is a thin slice and not the field's center; and the leading program's five-year median of $115,685 sits 28% above the national field median of $90,385. Its median debt, $11,634, runs below the field median of $21,500, which is the trade a student at the top of this table is actually being offered.
Frequently asked questions
What is the starting salary for Civil Engineering graduates?
Scorecard's first measured horizon is one year after graduation, and the graduate-weighted median there is $72,540 across 237 programs. By year five the median reaches $90,385.
What do Civil Engineering graduates owe when they finish?
A median of $21,500 in federal loans at graduation. At the 2026-27 undergraduate rate of 6.52%, the standard 10-year payment is $244 a month.
Why does this page show two different medians for Civil Engineering?
One median weights every program by its graduates counted, so it describes the middle graduate; the other is the middle program, unweighted. For this field they are $72,540 and $72,633 at year one, and printing both keeps the method honest.
How does Civil Engineering compare with other degrees?
Its five-year median of $90,385 sits above the all-fields median of $65,763. The ranked table for all published fields is on the degree earnings hub in this section.