MAJORS · 19 OF 19 BY ROI
Is an engineering degree worth it?
On average, yes — the mean lifetime ROI is +$1,132,553. But the spread is the real story.
MEAN LIFETIME ROI · FREOPP 2021 · COHORT-WEIGHTED
+$1,132,553
across 2,183 bachelor’s programs · 208,317 graduates
MEDIAN GRADUATE
+$1.13M
MIDDLE 50% LAND BETWEEN
+$943K ⟷ +$1.31M
NEVER BREAK EVEN
0%
MEDIAN BREAK-EVEN AGE
26
ADJUSTED FOR REAL COMPLETION RATES
+$788K
IF YOU DROP OUT
−$119K
The biggest fields inside Engineering
- Mechanical Engineering. 54,017 grads +$1.11M
- Electrical, Electronics and Communications Engineering. 25,799 grads +$1.30M
- Civil Engineering. 24,206 grads +$1.04M
- Chemical Engineering. 16,445 grads +$1.06M
- Computer Engineering. 13,163 grads +$1.33M
Mean lifetime ROI per field, cohort-weighted. A category average hides this spread — and the per-school spread inside each field is wider still.
Subfield deep-dives inside Engineering
- Is a mechanical engineering degree worth it? 54,017 grads +$1.11M
- Is an electrical engineering degree worth it? 25,799 grads +$1.26M
- Is a civil engineering degree worth it? 24,206 grads +$1.01M
- Is a chemical engineering degree worth it? 16,445 grads +$1.07M
- Is a computer engineering degree worth it? 13,163 grads +$1.28M
- Is a biomedical engineering degree worth it? 7,385 grads +$1.05M
- Is an industrial engineering degree worth it? 7,327 grads +$1.27M
- Is an aerospace engineering degree worth it? 6,261 grads +$1.25M
- Is a mechanical engineering technology degree worth it? 5,304 grads +$1.09M
- Is an industrial production technology degree worth it? 4,442 grads +$912K
- Is a general engineering degree worth it? 4,213 grads +$896K
- Is an electrical engineering technology degree worth it? 3,469 grads +$797K
Median lifetime ROI per subfield, cohort-weighted. Each page carries the full statistics — spread, break-even age, the share who never break even.
How much of this work is AI already reaching for?
We read what the AI labs measured about their own machines. Microsoft and Anthropic scored how much of real occupations their AI is already used for — then warned it is not a measure of jobs being replaced. Here is where that lands Engineering, judged on where its graduates actually work — not where the degree theoretically leads.
Where Engineering graduates actually work — and how much of each job today’s AI is reaching for (0–1 applicability):
- 11% Software Developers 0.41
- 8% Engineers, All Other 0.32
- 8% Managers, All Other 0.19
- 8% Civil Engineers 0.28
- 5% Mechanical Engineers 0.38
And what people in this field actually bring to AI — the job tasks most taken to Claude, from Anthropic’s usage data:
- Analyze information to determine, recommend, and plan layout, including type of computers and peripheral equipment modifications.
- Modify existing software to correct errors, to adapt it to new hardware, or to upgrade interfaces and improve performance.
- Write articles, manuals, and other publications, and assist in the distribution of promotional literature about facilities and programs.
- Test machines, components, materials, or products to determine characteristics such as performance, strength, or response to stress.
Exposure isn’t replacement. The score is how much of the task AI touches — not whether the job survives, which turns on judgment, licensure, physical presence, and trust. Sources: Microsoft Research “Working with AI” (CC BY 4.0), the Anthropic Economic Index (CC BY), and U.S. Census ACS field-of-degree. Applicability scores are le-teen-derived, not original Microsoft figures; the task list is Anthropic’s observed Claude usage.
Questions
- Is an engineering degree worth it?
- On average yes — across 2,183 U.S. bachelor’s programs (FREOPP 2021, cohort-weighted), the mean lifetime ROI for Engineering is +$1,132,553 and the median is +$1,125,922. 0% of graduates in this field never break even on the degree. The honest answer depends heavily on the specific program and school: the middle half of graduates land between +$943,430 and +$1,312,427.
- How long until an engineering degree pays off?
- Among Engineering programs that do break even, the median graduate crosses into positive ROI at age 26 (FREOPP 2021). 0% of graduates in the field are in programs that never break even at all.
- Does the school matter for an engineering major?
- Enormously. The middle 50% of Engineering graduates span +$943,430 to +$1,312,427 — a +$369K spread within one major. The same field can be a strong trade at one school and a losing one at another, which is why the per-school number matters more than the field average.
- Will AI replace engineering jobs?
- Careful with that word. Two AI labs — Microsoft and Anthropic — measured how much of real occupations their own AI is *already being used for*, then explicitly warned it is NOT a measure of jobs being eliminated. On that measure, Engineering lands in the elevated-exposure tier: the largest place these grads actually work is software developers (11% of them), where AI applicability sits at 0.41 on a 0–1 scale. Exposure means how much of the *task* AI touches — not whether the job survives, which also depends on judgment, licensure, physical presence, and trust. Solidly within AI's reach, but not at the frontier — a lot of the work is still judgment, people, and rooms.
↓ Download the data (CSV) · All 19 categories with full statistics. Free to cite with attribution. · Methodology
Cite this:
LE TEEN (2026). “Engineering: lifetime ROI statistics.” Data: FREOPP 2021. https://le-teen.com/majors/engineering