Salaries and Employment Locations of Recent Geoscience Graduates

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Date updated: 2013-10-23
Data Brief 2013-015
Written and compiled by Carolyn E. Wilson for AGI, October 2013

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AGI’s National Geoscience Student Exit Survey measures the relevant experiences in school and the immediate career plans upon graduation of recent geoscience degree recipients. In spring 2013, AGI distributed this survey nationally and received 428 responses from 71 geoscience departments. This Currents examines the results from questions focused on the information about students’ employment in the geosciences.

Graduates were asked about their new job position if they had accepted employment within the geosciences, including the location of their new job and their starting annual salary. While graduates attended school in all regions of the country, the majority of the new job locations were in Texas, California, and Oklahoma. For example, the highest number of survey participants graduated from universities in Pennsylvania, but only four graduates found a job in that state. The graduates with jobs in Texas and Oklahoma were nearly all hired into the petroleum industry. Most of the graduates with jobs in California found positions in environmental services, research institutes, and government agencies.

Most bachelor’s graduates found jobs with an annual salary between $20,000 and $60,000. However, while the salary range for master’s and doctoral graduates varied widely depending on position, the majority of master’s graduates tended to and higher paying jobs compared to the doctoral graduates. Also, every graduate making an annual salary of more than $90,000 found their job in the petroleum industry.

Check out the 2013 Status of Recent Geoscience Graduates report for more data from AGI’s Geoscience Student Exit Survey.

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