What Industrial Engineering Graduates Earn
How much do Industrial Engineering bachelor's graduates earn?
The median Industrial Engineering bachelor's graduate starts at $79,514 and reaches $105,216 by year five in the federal Scorecard data (89 programs reporting at that horizon). Median debt at graduation: $20,500.
The after side of the Industrial Engineering decision: a $79,514 start, $105,216 by year five, and $20,500 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)
For Industrial Engineering, the federal file supports exactly three earnings snapshots, and this page prints all of them: $79,514 one year after graduation, $98,765 at four years, $105,216 at five. The weighting note matters: medians here count graduates, not programs, across 4,574 people in the five-year pool, which is why they can sit above or below the unweighted middle program shown in the next column.
| Horizon | Median earnings (graduate-weighted) | Median program (unweighted) | Graduates counted | Share earning above the high-school threshold |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 year after graduation | $79,514 | $77,946 | 4,693 | 75.2% |
| 4 years after graduation | $98,765 | $97,789 | 4,910 | n/p |
| 5 years after graduation | $105,216 | $102,795 | 4,574 | 78.1% |
Earnings in this field climb $25,702 between the first and fifth year, a 32% rise that beats the all-fields pattern (the median field in this dataset pays $45,010 at year one and $65,763 at year five). Early-career growth this shape usually means the first job is a foothold: licensure, a portfolio, or a first promotion does the heavy lifting.
One more cut of the year-one data: Pell recipients in Industrial Engineering post a median of $78,824, non-recipients $82,127. That $3,303 gap is the distance between two different student populations studying under one field name, and it narrows or widens by institution, which the program table below hints at.
Inside its own CIP family, Industrial Engineering ranks 4 of 17 published bachelor's fields by five-year earnings; the family median at that horizon is $97,669. Its closest sibling is Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering at $105,202, below this field's $105,216. Family comparisons strip out the broad field effect and leave the specific program choice exposed.
Ranked across all 182 published fields, Industrial Engineering stands number 6 by five-year earnings and number 9 by first-year earnings, and number 83 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
Across the 73 programs that report debt for Industrial Engineering, the median graduate owes $20,500. Set beside the $79,514 year-one median, the debt is 26% of first-year gross earnings, about 3.1 months of pay before tax. Repaid on the standard 10-year schedule at 6.52%, it costs $233 monthly and $7,458 in interest. The student loan payoff calculator replays that schedule with your numbers, and the college ROI calculator weighs the full cost against the earnings table above.
Where graduates of this field earn the most
The national median hides the real spread: inside Industrial Engineering, individual programs post five-year medians far from $105,216 in both directions. Below are the highest, filtered to programs with 30 or more graduates counted at five years; Northwestern University sits first at $151,709.
| Institution | Median earnings, 5 years | Median earnings, 1 year | Median debt | Graduates counted (5yr) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northwestern University | $151,709 | $95,993 | $13,992 | 45 |
| University of Southern California | $147,667 | $86,653 | $22,500 | 40 |
| University of Michigan-Ann Arbor | $132,040 | $87,932 | $20,500 | 155 |
| Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus | $131,228 | n/p | $20,071 | 224 |
| University of Washington-Seattle Campus | $128,259 | $87,802 | n/p | 32 |
A program median describes that program's own graduates in that program's own labor market; Northwestern University at $151,709 is evidence about a place and a mix of students, not a wage offer. Put the same programs' prices next to these figures with the degree cost calculator and the net price estimator before ranking anything.
Two more facts about the shape of this field: the five highest-paying programs in the table account for only 10.8% of the 4,574 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 $151,709 sits 44% above the national field median of $105,216. Its median debt, $13,992, runs below the field median of $20,500, which is the trade a student at the top of this table is actually being offered.
Frequently asked questions
How much do Industrial Engineering graduates earn?
The national median is $79,514 one year after graduation and $105,216 five years after, across the 93 bachelor's programs reporting 1-year earnings to College Scorecard (October 2026 release), weighted by graduates counted.
How much debt do Industrial Engineering graduates carry?
The median cumulative federal loan debt at graduation is $20,500. On a standard 10-year plan at 6.52% that is $233 a month and $7,458 of interest in total.
How were the Industrial Engineering national figures computed?
Scorecard publishes one median per program; this page takes the median of those program medians weighted by each program's graduates counted (4,693 people at year one), and prints the unweighted median program beside it. The field cleared a publication bar of at least 10 programs reporting at every horizon.
Is a degree in Industrial Engineering worth it?
The inputs are on this page: $105,216 median earnings at year five against $20,500 median debt. The verdict depends on your actual cost, so run your numbers through the college ROI calculator and the college major ROI calculator.