The Office of Assessment is pleased to announce the results of the Spring 2009 Career and Salary Survey.
The survey was administered online to 2,309 students who were scheduled to graduate in May 2009. A total of 1,488 students completed the survey for a response rate of 66.9 percent. The results are representative of the GT graduating population by degree level, college, gender, and ethnicity. The Office of Assessment recently provided academic units the ability to obtain specific job titles from students who reported employment. These detailed position descriptions are available in the frequency reports for individual programs.
Among the salient findings of the survey:
The economic downturn continues to affect placement rates of our graduates:
- The proportion of Georgia Tech BS recipients reporting having a job at graduation declined from 65.8% in Spring 2008 to 56.8% in Spring 2009.
- The proportion of graduate degree recipients (MS and PhD) reporting having a job at graduation declined from 73.2% in Spring 2008 to 55.7% in Spring 2009.
- Among undergraduates, the greatest declines in placement occurred in the College of Management (Spring 2008: 64.8%; Spring 2009: 49.3%) and the College of Engineering (Spring 2008: 71.5%; Spring 2009 59.8 %.)
- For the College of Engineering’s undergraduates, placement rates declined most in Electrical Engineering (Spring 2008: 79.2%; Spring 2009: 50.0%) and Civil Engineering (Spring 2008: 75.6%; Spring 2009: 50.0%.)
Some programs experienced year-over-year increases in placement among BS recipients:
- Biomedical Engineering increased from 37% in Spring 2008 to 46.2% in Spring 2009
- Computer Science increased from 78% to 85.7%
- BS Architecture recipients increased from 40.9% to 56.3%.
For those who report successful job searches, salaries have increased slightly over Spring 2008:
- Median reported salaries increased $3,000 for BS recipients and $5,000 for MS recipients.
Frequency of signing bonuses has declined slightly:
- Among those reporting a salary, 38.2% of Spring 2009 GT graduates reported receiving a signing bonus, compared to 42.9% in Spring 2008.
- The median reported bonus in Spring 2009 was $5,000 for both BS and MS recipients.
The lower rates of employment success have not translated into changes in continuing education plans.
- The percentage of BS recipients who intend to enroll in graduate school increased only slightly from 32.2% in Spring 2008 to 33.5% in Spring 2009.
Complete results of the survey are available on the Office of Assessment’s survey data warehouse: http://www.adors.gatech.edu. Students may access the salary reports at: http://www.adors.gatech.edu/assessment/adors/commencement/salary_report.cfm. If you have any questions about these data, you may contact me at jon.gordon@gatech.edu.