Engineering

Materials Engineering

University of California-Irvine · Irvine, CA

Medium evidenceMatched peers12 institutions · same subjectSee the evidence

The degree in numbers

Cost & earnings.

Annual tuition$45,014Institution-level tuition; programme fees may differ · before aid
Reported median debt$18,500Reported for this university and degree
Annual credentials awarded38Average of available recent award years; not the earnings sample size.

Earnings context

One career stage.
A clearer comparison.

USD · Bachelor's · 2 years after completion
Same source release. National references exclude this degree.

Selected degree estimate$67,300
Same subject · national$65,856
Engineering · national$63,302

Behind the number

Your comparison group.

Medium evidence

Same subject at 12 matched peer institutions · bachelor's

Grouped estimate. Middle half of comparison values: $66,090–$69,044.

Historical earnings archive. College Scorecard legacy FOS archive (file dated 2022-01-19; cohorts vary). Do not interpret this as today's graduate salary. Further study and career changes are not modelled by this early-career figure.

Bachelor's outcomes · 2 years after completion
Institution & subjectReported earnings
California Polytechnic State University-San Luis ObispoMaterials Engineering$68,219
University of FloridaMaterials Engineering$67,660
University of Michigan-Ann ArborMaterials Engineering$71,575
Clemson UniversityMaterials Engineering$62,012
North Carolina State University at RaleighMaterials Engineering$61,516
University of Washington-Seattle CampusMaterials Engineering$70,680
Georgia Institute of Technology-Main CampusMaterials Engineering$65,387
University of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignMaterials Engineering$66,541
University of Maryland-College ParkMaterials Engineering$66,325
University of Wisconsin-MadisonMaterials Engineering$66,941
Purdue University-Main CampusMaterials Engineering$68,499
Ohio State University-Main CampusMaterials Engineering$71,015
How matching & uncertainty work

We first look for the same subject code (or exact subject name), qualification, country, currency, source release and earnings horizon. Peer institutions are matched using admissions selectivity, completion rates, undergraduate size and institution type, with a small preference for the same region. These are institutional proxies, not a ranking of programme quality.

If subject-matched peers are sparse, we try related subjects at closely matched universities, related degrees at this university, then an explicitly labelled national reference. We never multiply a salary by a university prestige score.

Peer and national estimates give each reporting institution one vote, after taking the median of its related programmes. Shared branch-campus outcomes count once. The middle-half range describes variation between reporting institutions. It is not an individual salary range or a statistical confidence interval.

Evidence labels describe match quality and coverage, not validated prediction accuracy. Admissions and size are undergraduate institutional measures, so graduate-degree comparisons are especially approximate.

Historical cohort outcomes are not promised salaries or a causal effect of attending this programme. College Scorecard earnings cover eligible federal-aid recipients, not every graduate or international student. Source definitions ↗