master's vs phd engineering salary

Choose Between a Master's, Ph.D. in Engineering

A doctorate in engineering requires a love of research and patience for several years of challenging study.

Weigh a Master's, Ph.D. in Engineering

Students who pursue a graduate degree in engineering will be more competitive in the job market than those with just a bachelor's, experts say.

When it comes to employment, graduates with a bachelor's degree in engineering are on solid footing, relatively speaking. With high salaries and some of the best odds of finding full-time work , they can escape the career angst that often plagues their peers with freshly-minted English or history diplomas.

Still, many engineers may find themselves wondering what a graduate degree could do for their career. 

"With the economy improving, significant numbers of job postings are now requiring higher levels of expertise," says Ken Little, senior graduate career development adviser at  Georgia Institute of Technology . At the same time, high-tech jobs are becoming more globally competitive, drawing applicants from all over the world, he says. 

Students looking to get a graduate degree in engineering can choose between a master's program and a Ph.D. It's a big decision, experts say, and one that can significantly affect a student's career. 

Learn why engineers may be more

Before choosing what kind of graduate degree to pursue, students should think about what they want to do with their lives after graduation, experts say.

Master's degrees prepare students for careers in industry that don't have a research focus, says Babatunde Ogunnaike, dean of the college of engineering at the University of Delaware . "If you want to work in research either in industry or in academia or for a government research lab, you need to get a Ph.D.," he says.

Eddie Machek, who is earning a master's degree in civil engineering from the  University of Akron  and who will start a doctoral program in engineering at Georgia Tech this fall, explains the difference between the degrees this way: "At a bachelor's level you are going to go out and do what's been done. At the master's level you are going to be in charge of the people who are doing that stuff. In a Ph.D., that's a whole other thing because you are doing the new stuff. You are in a lab." 

Master's degrees in engineering can be a great fit for recent graduates who want to specialize within engineering or for those already in the field who want to switch their focus, experts say. The degrees can be research-based, which is the more common option, or professional, which lack a research component.

“It opens the door for more specialized opportunities in the workforce," Craig Menzemer, associate dean for graduate studies and administration at the University of Akron, said through email. "For example, a civil engineer with a bachelor’s degree may be expected to do a variety of day-to-day tasks, but a civil engineering major with a master’s who specialized in structures will have opportunities to work on structural-specific projects." 

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Aditya Srinath, who earned his  master's in industrial engineering from Purdue University in 2014, says he opted for the credential because it helped him bolster his professional skills rather than research skills. "A master's strikes a good balance between having more education than a bachelor's and not as much as Ph.D but still having a more rounded-out profile," says Srinath, who works as a project engineer at 3M, which manufactures a wide array of products, including Post-it Notes. 

Engineering Ph.D.s provide even more specialization than master's degrees, and a higher earning potential, but they also come with significant risks, experts say. 

Research jobs within government labs and industry are quite competitive, and tenure-track faculty positions are notoriously hard to come by, says George Haritos, dean of the college of engineering at the University of Akron. What's more, sometimes employers in industry won't hire Ph.D.s because they fear they are overqualified and would have to pay them too much, he says. 

Doctoral programs require students to put in a great deal of time and effort, experts say. Not everyone finishes the programs, and those who do are both gifted and passionate about their subject. 

Scottie-Beth Fleming, who is earning a doctorate in aerospace engineering from Georgia Tech, says she enjoys the independence that comes with a Ph.D. 

"With the master's, a lot of times, your research is driven by the government or someone who is giving money and there is an expectation of what you are going to do," she says. "In a Ph.D. you don’t have that expectation. You get to explore an area that maybe nobody else would explore." 

Before making a final decision about what kind of advanced engineering degree to pursue, students should also look into the requirements of their field, says Susan Fisher, director of graduate programs at Purdue University's engineering school.

For example, chemical engineering and biomedical engineering have more employment opportunities for Ph.D. students, she says. Civil engineering, on the other hand, has more employment openings outside academia for those with master’s degrees than for those with doctorates.

One way students can gauge whether they are ready for a Ph.D is to take a few research-focused courses either in undergrad or while in a master's program, experts say. 

"The goal is to find out what you are truly passionate about and find a good way to apply that to the world," Srinath says. 

Searching for an engineering school? Get our  complete rankings  of Best Engineering Schools.

Tags: education , engineering graduate school , graduate schools , STEM education , STEM , students

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PhD Salaries and Lifetime Earnings

PhDs employed across job sectors show impressive earning potential:

“…[T]here is strong evidence that advanced education levels continue to be associated with higher salaries. A study by the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce showed that across the fields examined, individuals with a graduate degree earned an average of 38.3% more than those with a bachelor’s degree in the same field. The expected lifetime earnings for someone without a high school degree is $973,000; with a high school diploma, $1.3 million; with a bachelor’s degree, $2.3 million; with a master’s degree, $2.7 million; and with a doctoral degree (excluding professional degrees), $3.3 million. Other data indicate that the overall unemployment rate for individuals who hold graduate degrees is far lower than for those who hold just an undergraduate degree.” - Pathways Through Graduate School and Into Careers , Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) and Educational Testing Service (ETS), pg. 3.

Average salaries by educational level and degree (data from the US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2009-2011, courtesy of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce):

The Bureau of Labor and Statistics reports higher earnings and lower unemployment rates for doctoral degree holders in comparison to those with master’s and bachelor’s degrees:

According to national studies, more education translates not only to higher earnings, but also higher levels of job success and job satisfaction:

“Educational attainment – the number of years a person spends in school – strongly predicts adult earnings, and also predicts health and civic engagement. Moreover, individuals with higher levels of education appear to gain more knowledge and skills on the job than do those with lower levels of education and they are able, to some extent, to transfer what they learn across occupations.” - Education for Life and Work (2012), National Research Council of the National Academies, pg. 66.

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