97 Percent Placement Rate Affirms Return on Investment

Monday, January 09, 2017
Kevin Trizna Career Fair

Debt-Free Graduate: Kevin Trizna, Class of 2016 president, paid off his college loans within six months after becoming a software development engineer with Groupon in Seattle.

Within six months of earning his computer science degree and starting a job as a software development engineer with Groupon in Seattle, 2016 graduate Kevin Trizna has paid off all his student loans.

"I've always had very aggressive financial goals," the Class of 2016 president says. "I've heard enough people entering their 30s who were lamenting their student loans." "The only way I could pay my loans off early would be through some serious discipline and a full-time job with a cozy salary. Rose-Hulman dropped both of these things right in my lap. I owe every bit of this milestone to the school."

Trizna isn't alone in reaping the benefits of his Rose-Hulman education. Job and graduate school prospects for the Class of 2016 have continued a longstanding tradition of nearly 100 percent placement for postgraduate employment, graduate school acceptances and military officer roles.

In fact, last year's seniors had a 97 percent placement rate within six months of graduation.

Kevin Hewerdine, director of career services and employer relations, points out that members of the Class of 2016 had an average accepted salary offer of $68,929, which surpassed the 2015 average of $66,940. The highest 2016 offer, $124,800, went to a computer science graduate.

"There are segments of the economy, like computer science, electrical engineering, computer engineering, civil engineering and software engineering where companies are actively seeking full time, co-op and internship candidates to meet current and future employment demands," says Hewerdine. "Students with our quality skills, high standards and strong work ethic are in demand by large and small companies in career fields across the country."

Civil engineering, chemistry, computer engineering, mathematics, optical engineering, physics and software engineering had 100 percent placement rates for the 2015-16 recruitment season.

PayScale Inc., a company that provides salary ranges and related data for businesses, lists engineering-related fields as having 13 of the top 15 careers on the 2016 PayScale.com Salary Survey.

Also, Rose-Hulman's 20-year net Return On Investment (ROI) of $769,000 ranked 18th out of 962 U.S. colleges and universities on PayScale's 2016 ROI Report, and Business Insider highlights the institute as one of the nation's top 15 best-value colleges, based on having the highest-paying majors.

Other Rose-Hulman's 2015-16 Placement Report highlights are:

  • Companies hiring the most 2016 graduates were Rockwell Collins (10), Eli Lilly & Company (8), Amazon (8), Cook Group (7), Texas Instruments (7), ArcelorMittal (6), Clarke Engineering (6), Edgile (6), Ford Motor Co. (6), Google (6), Marathon Petroleum (6), Naval Sea Systems Command (6), Epic Systems (5), Milwaukee Tool (5), Fiat Chrysler (4), Frito Lay (4), Groupon (4), Honeywell (4), Software Engineering Professionals (4) and Textron (4)
  • An all-time high of 966 companies requested resumes of Rose-Hulman students in 2015-16 - nearly 200 more than the previous high. Meanwhile, 471 companies participated in campus career fairs, which resulted in 2,080 student interviews on campus.
  • 19 percent of the Class of 2016 is attending graduate school at 40 schools in 23 states and two foreign countries.