Is a Materials Engineering degree worth it?
Across 26 schools, graduates of Materials Engineering earn a median $88,803 five years out on $23,125 of debt — most often working as Cost Estimators. Every figure is a real, published federal number.
Median 5-yr pay
$88,803
Median debt
$23,125
Years to pay off
2.6
at 10% of pay
AI task exposure
47%
GPT-4-era overlap
10-yr job growth
+0.4%
BLS 2024–2034
Net price
$16,798/yr
Debt-test failures
0%
of programs
'Real' premium
+$19,228
vs avg, adjusted
See where this degree leads, who's hiring, and whether the pay covers the rent.
Explore Materials Engineering in full →Data: U.S. Dept. of Education College Scorecard, BLS OEWS, O*NET, AI-exposure measures (Eloundou/AIOE), Zillow. Earnings reflect federally-aided graduates; see the full story for methodology and limitations.