Electrical Engineering Degrees

Electrical engineers make things run – from your car, to your child’s toy, to your toaster oven. They use computers to design circuits, test their designs, troubleshoot when experiments fail, and improve when experiments succeed. One hundred years ago, we might simply have called them inventors.

Jobs & Salaries

Electrical engineers are employed in many industries: cars, robots, cell phones, global positioning systems, power generators, and airplane design, to name a few. While the work can be in almost any industry and happen in offices, labs, or plants, the salary for the position tends to be high across the board. The average wage for electrical engineers is above $85,000; those in electronics engineering averaged more than $88,000. Designing and constructing medical machines is one of the best paying fields.

Degree Requirements

Electrical engineering jobs require a four year degree at least, though many jobs require applicants to have master’s degrees. To be admitted into most programs, students have to enter into college with excellent grades in math and science. Engineering classes are highly competitive and have intense workloads. Core classes are in chemistry, computing, advanced mathematics, and physics, with specialized coursework in subjects like digital design, electromagnetics, microelectronic circuits, and lab work.