Class of 2015 bachelor’s degree graduates earned an average starting salary of $50,219—up 4.3 percent from their Class of 2014 counterparts’ overall average salary of $48,127—according to results of NACE’s Spring 2016 Salary Survey.

This final figure for the Class of 2015 is based upon results of NACE’s Class of 2015 First-Destination Survey.

As expected, Class of 2015 bachelor’s degree graduates in the STEM disciplines received the top average starting salaries.

Graduates in the computer sciences fields were the highest paid, with an overall average of $69,214. These graduates held their position at the top as they were also the highest paid in the Fall 2015 Salary Survey report ($65,849).

Following closely behind with an overall average starting salary of $63,764 were engineering graduates. Among the specific engineering disciplines, graduates earning petroleum engineering degrees were the highest paid with an average salary of almost $75,000.

Third on the list of top-paid majors was mathematics and statistics, another STEM discipline. The overall average salary for this group of graduates was $58,554.

While graduates earning bachelor’s degrees in the business fields did not crack the top three on the “highest paid” list, their overall average salary was a respectable $51,452.

Data contained in NACE's Spring 2016 Salary Survey report were reported to NACE through its national Class of 2015 First-Destination Survey by 279 colleges and universities nationwide, and represent data for almost 470,000 graduates across all degree levels. Most of the analysis provided here, however, focuses on the data provided for more than 243,000 bachelor’s degree graduates. NACE's Spring 2016 Salary Survey report provides actual starting salaries (not projections) for the college Class of 2015, and serves as the final salary report for the Class of 2015. It is available to members in MyNACE. An executive summary report is available at www.naceweb.org/salary-resources/salary-survey.aspx.