Engineering

Mechanical Engineering

Western Illinois University · Macomb, IL

Medium evidenceMatched peers12 institutions · same subjectSee the evidence

The degree in numbers

Cost & earnings.

Annual tuition$14,952Institution-level tuition; programme fees may differ · before aid
Grouped debt estimate$27,750Same subject at 12 matched peer institutions · bachelor's
Annual credentials awarded9Average 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$65,410
Same subject · national$65,029
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: $62,198–$69,652.

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
Prairie View A & M UniversityMechanical Engineering$69,757
Purdue University NorthwestMechanical Engineering$62,260
Central Connecticut State UniversityMechanical Engineering$69,617
University of Southern MaineMechanical Engineering$61,728
University of Michigan-FlintMechanical Engineering$70,776
University of Missouri-Kansas CityMechanical Engineering$65,920
Saginaw Valley State UniversityMechanical Engineering$73,378
University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical CampusMechanical Engineering$64,899
Northern Illinois UniversityMechanical Engineering$64,150
University of New OrleansMechanical Engineering$62,012
University of Akron Main CampusMechanical Engineering$66,821
New Mexico State University-Main CampusMechanical Engineering$61,814
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 ↗