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Management information systems majors earned the top average starting salary—and the only one to top $60,000—among Class of 2017 business majors earning bachelor’s degrees, according to results of NACE’s Summer 2018 Salary Survey.
Management information systems majors earned starting salaries that averaged $60,575. Construction management majors and those earning degrees in management sciences and quantitative methods (actuarial) followed closely with average salaries of $58,744 and $58,377, respectively.
Finance ($56,355) and accounting ($52,343) majors rounded out the five top-paid business majors from the Class of 2017.
The Summer 2018 Salary Survey report provides actual starting salaries (not projections) for the college Class of 2017, and serves as the final salary report for the Class of 2017. Data were gathered from Class of 2017 graduates through December 31, 2017, and reported to NACE through May 25, 2018. The salary data were reported to NACE through its national Class of 2017 First-Destination Survey by approximately 366 colleges and universities nationwide, and represent data for slightly more than 695,000 graduates at the associate, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree levels. The analysis provided here focuses on the data provided for more than 81,800 bachelor’s degree graduates. The Summer 2018 Salary Survey report is available to members in MyNACE. An executive summary report is available at http://www.naceweb.org/research/reports/.
Figure 1: Top Average Starting Salaries for Class of 2017 Business Majors
| Major |
Average Salary |
| Management information systems |
$60,575 |
| Construction management |
$58,744 |
| Management sciences and quantitative methods (actuarial) |
$58,377 |
| Finance |
$56,355 |
| Accounting |
$52,343 |
Source: Summer 2018 Salary Survey, National Association of Colleges and Employers